Repair of another C-130 completed this month

Another C-130 cargo plane would be put into operation this month after undergoing repair to fill in the gap left by the one that crashed in the Davao Gulf last week, Philippine Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Pedrito Cadungog said yesterday.

In a phone interview, Cadungog said they would also repair two other C-130s next year if they could get P700 million to buy spare parts and other needed equipment for the aircraft.

He said the Senate defense committee, which held an executive session with top defense and military officials yesterday, gave assurance that it would help the PAF look for a supplemental budget for the project.

Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, Armed Forces of the Philippines public affairs chief, said in a briefing that they might consider the maximum use of Navy ships to transport troops or chartering commercial planes in urgent situations to deploy troops and equipment to address the gap left by the ill-fated C-130.

“Considering that we only had two C-130s that are operational before one crashed, there is a significant impact, but there are other ways of compensating for the loss of that aircraft,” he said.

Cadungog also said that search teams looking for the wreckage of the C-130 in the Davao Gulf are finding it difficult to locate the aircraft’s parts due to strong undercurrents.

“Even the US Navy ship John McDonnell is having a hard time looking for images of the C-130 due to strong undercurrents. So it might take a little longer, unless there is one stroke of luck that they would see concrete images of the wreckage,” he said.

The C-130 crashed shortly after taking off from Davao City airport, killing 11 people on board.

Meanwhile, Philippine Navy ship Vice Adm. Fernando Golez, is unaware if the USNS John McDonnell has been granted an extension.

The US ship was given permission by the government to scour the Davao Gulf from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2. But hours after midnight Tuesday, the ship was still in Philippine waters. It arrived Monday.

Golez said he did not have any idea until when the John McDonnell was allowed to stay in Philippine waters.

“It is not within my capacity to grant or not to grant their stay in Philippine waters,” he said in a phone interview. “It is between governments and ... the higher-ups.”

What is clear though is that the John McDonnell would not dock in any Philippine port, Golez said.

The 208-foot long John McDonnell, one of the US Navy’s seven oceanographic survey ships, carries 34-foot survey launchers that could collect data in coastal areas with depths of up to 1,967 feet.

The C-130 was believed to have plunged 870 feet, about two nautical miles from Barangay Bucana in Davao City.

Maj. Armando Rico, spokesman of the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command, said the John McDonnell’s survey results would be handed to the US Embassy in Manila.

The embassy, in turn, would turn them over to the Philippine government, he said. – With Edith Regalado