Why all those nasty rumors from CAAP?

Yesterday Capt. Jessup Bahinting was laid to rest in his hometown in Ginatilan, Cebu, but certainly, it won’t be the last time that we shall hear about the crash that did not only take his own life, but that of DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo and co-pilot Kshitiz Chand. Already, news reports, many of them borne out of rumors, have surfaced that could cast a shadow of doubt on the capability of the late Capt. Jessup Bahinting, who can no longer defend himself as to what really went terribly wrong last Aug. 18.

One such rumor was headlined in The Freeman, last Sunday which blared, “Bahinting carried expired license.” The source of this report came from an unnamed person from Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). But Avia Tours management vehemently denied this report and they can prove it. But granted for the sake of argument that Capt. Bahinting’s pilot license was expired, would it have diminished his flying capability? I think not! Many of us forget to renew our driver’s license and continue driving, but does having an expired license diminish our driving capability?

Then there’s that other malicious report about the Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT) that conked out. Perhaps it conked out because of the shock of the crash. Even those well placed and well-packed Blackboxes in airliners often breakdown because of the violence of the crash. The big question is… why are all these information leaked out from CAAP and why do these people want to be anonymous? What’s the hidden agenda of CAAP?

During the wake, I pieced together very important and vital information that Capt. Bahinting was at the left seat of the Piper Seneca II when it flew out of Mactan. So this should quash those nasty rumor mongers who said that Capt. Bahinting’s body was found on the right side of the aircraft. Come now… have these people forgotten that the aircraft was upside down? So if the pilot was on the left seat, when the plane is upside down, he was found on the right side.

Until we find the right engine of the Piper Seneca II, we will never know what went wrong. During the wake, I did talk to Capt. Raoul who always flew that plane who told me that they would practice shutting off the engine during flight in order to train pilots to handle such situation. Mind you, there were no Mayday calls coming from the plane because it could still fly on one engine. But Capt. Bahinting knew that it was better to land the plane in Masbate City rather than risk flying to Naga on one engine.

I also talked to Avia Tours Flight Director Capt. Antonio Jureidini who told me that Capt. Jessup wasn’t supposed to fly that Saturday. But he got a call from Sec. Robredo who insisted that he fly him to Naga. When Sec. Robredo got into the Avia Tours hangar, Capt. Bahinting was preparing his favorite plane, a Cessna 172 G1000, which has an ultra-modern glass cockpit instrumentation just like an Airbus airliner.

But seeing that it was a single engine aircraft, Sec. Robredo asked Capt. Bahinting to use the Piper Seneca II instead. Call it fate… that perhaps it was already Sec. Robredo’s time. He already had an airline ticket to fly to Manila. But he decided to fly straight to Naga for his daughter’s awarding. He could have accepted Capt. Bahinting’s choice of aircraft, but chose the Piper Seneca II instead. Yes, most people believe that a twin-engine plane is always safer than a single engine one.

But apparently, Capt. Vince Ong, a good friend of mine who has airplanes with Avia Tours told me that in terms of survival, the single engine plane has a higher survival rate. Perhaps because it has a high wing and can glide better unlike a low wing aircraft. Yes, it was on a high-wing Cessna 172 that Capt. Bahinting flew former Cebu Gov. Emilio “Lito” Osmeña, which had fuel problems, and when the engine conked out. But Capt. Jessup glided his plane along the beach to a safe landing. 

Last Saturday morning, my good friends, former DOTC Secretary Vicente Rivera and Capt. Joy Roa of Air Safari fame dropped in to pay their respects to Capt. Bahinting. The former DOTC Chief used to pilot the late Sen. Serging Osmeña, Jr. and have known Capt. Bahinting since the old days when the airport in Cebu was still located at the old Lahug Airfield, which is now the AsiaTown I.T. Park and Waterfront Hotel.

I hope Director General William Hotchkiss III of CAAP would get into the bottom of this crash and stop all those rumors, which benefit no one. Perhaps he ought to start cleaning up CAAP, which is no different from the LTO or LTFRB. Meanwhile Capt. Bahinting was given a Lifesaver Award by the City of Cebu for his mercy missions, which if you didn’t know This included flying mercy mission to Cagayan de Oro at the height of Typhoon Sendong disaster and the wounded bodyguards of the Surigao Governor.

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