DOTC calls for follow-up investigation on Robredo plane crash

Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said Tuesday that a new investigation will follow the investigation that is currently being carried out to determine the cause of the plane crash that killed then Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo. On the sidelines of the Senate budget hearing on Tuesday, Abaya tried to clarify the seeming redundancy by explaining that the investigation to follow the investigation will be carried out to determine if the airtaxi company that owned the crashed plane had any criminal or administrative liability. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, which is carrying out the current investigation, will also perform the follow up investigation.   CAAP is an agency under the Department of Transportation and communication.   “First of all, I also find out that the CAAP’s AAIB’s (Aircraft Accident Investigation Board), the body tasked to investigate the incident [the Robredo plane crash], main mission is to prevent a similar event [from occurring again],” Abaya tried to explain, “It has no criminal findings or responsibility. CAAP will take that task.”   Last August, the ill-fated Piper Seneca plane carrying Robredo and three others crashed off Masbate’s coast. A few days later, Robredo’s body was found. The remains of the pilot Jessup Bahinting and Nepalese co-pilot Khshitiz Chand were later found at the seafloor at a depth of 180 feet.   Pilot Bahinting was the owner and chief executive officer of Aviatour, the airtaxi company that chartered the flight. Aviatour’s operation has been suspended since the plane crash.   Robredo’s aide-de-camp, Senior Inspector June Abrazado, was the lone survivor of the plane crash.   Final report, draft report   Contrary to news reports, the DOTC chief said that the CAAP has yet to come up with a final report on the initial investigation. “Kausap po natin yung CAAP. May nasabi na draft report but I think they are turning the last stone so all the stones are turned into the report.”   “What they [CAAP] really planned is to present this first to the President because the President … promised Atty. Leni Robredo [the late Secretary Jesse’s spouse] that she should be the first one to find out the details of the final report,” Abaya explained.   On Sunday, The Philippine Star reported that pilot error and a defective engine caused Robredo’s plane crash. The newspaper quoted a 14-page draft report from the five-man CAAP investigating panel headed by Captain Amado Soliman.   However, Soliman noted that the report being quoted by the media was released without proper authorization. — DVM, GMA News