‘Black box’ of decoupled MRT coach missing, chance of sabotage raised

The Department of Transportation has raised the possibility of sabotage after MRT investigators found the black box of the decoupled coach missing.

Transportation Undersecretary Cesar Chavez made the remark hours after a coach detached from a north bound MRT train in between the Gil Puyat and Ayala stations on Thursday morning.

"The Messma Card or black box of the decoupled Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) #68 is missing," Chavez said in a message to reporters.

Chavez said the Messma Card functioned like a black box that recorded all applied interventions.

"Who has the motive? Who has the opportunity? Who has the capability of removing the Black Box?" Chavez said.

"Is the motive to simply cover up the mistake of the train operation of Index No. 5 or part of an effort to sabotage the entire operation? These are some questions that the team is looking into," he added.

‘Impossible about human intervention’

The missing black box is part of the report of the technical team led by Safety Chief Technician Ruel Jose, who conducted the initial investigation of this morning's incident near the Ayala station.

Jose in a briefing earlier indicated that the coupler between the coaches could not have given way on its own.

"Imposibleng magkahiwalay ang coupler kung walang human intervention," Jose said.

As many as 140 passengers of the Metro Rail Transit 3 were evacuated from a "detached train" coach between the railway line’s Buendia and Ayala Avenue Stations on Thursday morning.

Chavez said around 130 to 140 passengers were evacuated by security personnel from the two stations in eight to 10 minutes.

No one was injured during the interstation evacuation, Chavez said.

The MRT3 serviced only half of its stations for about half an hour on Thursday morning due to what was earlier described as train failure, between the two stations.

A separate unloading incident happened at the Quezon Avenue Station just a few minutes before the implementation of the provisional service. —NB, GMA News