Filipinos have grown used to the idea that pilots of the Philippine Air Force take to the skies on a wing and a prayer. That does not make every plane crash and the consequent loss of an Air Force pilot’s life any less painful. The PAF fleet of aircraft has been the butt of jokes for such a long time that the jokes have grown stale. One particular trainer jet in the PAF fleet has figured in so many crashes that it has been christened the widow-maker. The situation is so bad that many graduates of the Philippine Military Academy who join the PAF leave the Armed Forces to become commercial pilots as soon as they have served the minimum period in the military as payment for their PMA scholarship.
The other day another PAF trainer aircraft, this time a Cessna, smashed into a mountain slope shortly after taking off from the Loakan airport in Baguio City. All four PAF lieutenants on board were killed. One was instructing the three others, who were supposed to graduate this month from a two-year combat pilot course, on navigation skills. All four were young PMA graduates. Before the crash, the main pilot reportedly managed to send a radio message that they were experiencing engine trouble.
The crash came less than a month after a UH-1H helicopter went down in Nueva Ecija. All nine on board, including retired chief government seismologist Raymundo Punongbayan, were killed. That crash forced the grounding of all Huey helicopters – the workhorses of the Air Force. This time the PAF has grounded its fleet of Cessna trainer planes. The grounding will further cripple a command whose services are vital not just for fighting enemies of the state but also for the myriad functions of an air force during peacetime, such as disaster relief operations.
Enough reminders have been made about the weakness of the PAF and the risks that poses to national defense. If those in charge of upgrading Air Force equipment remain unconcerned about those risks, they should at least worry about the loss of lives from disasters involving old or poorly maintained aircraft.