Air Force C-130 black box will be sent to US to aid in probe —Sobejana

Armed Forces chief General Cirilito Sobejana on Wednesday said the black box or flight data recorder of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) C-130 plane that crashed in Sulu on Sunday will be sent to the US to aid in the investigation.

"Hawak na nila (mga imbestigador ang black box) subalit wala tayong kakayahan locally na buksan at tingnan kung ano 'yung nilalaman. Ipapadala natin ito sa Amerika," Sobejana said in an interview on GMA News' Unang Balita.

(The investigators already have the black box. However, we do not have the capability locally to open it and see what is inside. We will send it to America.)

"Nakausap na rin natin 'yung counterpart. Sila naman ay nag-commit na kung matatanggap na nila ay bubuksan nila kaagad upang basahin kung ano ang nilalaman nito at ipasa kaagad sa atin para makatulong nang malaki sa pag-imbestiga kung ano ang sanhi ng pagbagsak ng C-130," he added.

(We talked to our counterpart [in the US]. They committed that once they receive the black box, they will immediately open it to read what is inside and send us the information right away to help us greatly in the investigation into the C-130 crash.)

The C-130, which came from Cagayan de Oro City and was bringing troops to Sulu, crashed before noon on Sunday after missing the runway in Barangay Bangkal, Patikul, Sulu. Fifty soldiers and three civilians died. Meanwhile, 46 servicemen and four civilians were injured.

In the same interview, Sobejana said 16 of the 50 soldiers killed in the crash have already been identified.

The black box was recovered in the area. Sobejana earlier said the conversations in the cockpit can be retrieved from the black box. “Malalaman natin kung ano yung magiging conversation doon sa cockpit.” (We will know what the conversations were inside the cockpit.)

The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Monday said it is ruling out any foul play in the incident.

The PAF on Tuesday denied speculations that there was overloading among passengers in its C-130 plane.

Sobejana on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte wants that the incident be the last crash involving a military aircraft.

“Very clear po ang instruction ng ating Presidente na [The president’s instruction is very clear that], our air assets and other military equipment should be in good shape all the time, and you cannot afford to have similar incident in the future. That (C-130 crash) should be the last,” he said. —KG/KBK, GMA News