Flight 541 flying too low - ATO

The Air Philippines jet which crashed on Samal island and killed 131 people on board last week was flying about 1,000 feet lower than required for still unknown reasons, an air transport official said yesterday.

Air Transportation Office (ATO) executive director Rolando Luna said the plane should have been flying at an altitude of 1,500 feet when it was eight kilometers from the Davao airport as it prepared to land.

Instead, Flight 541 crashed at that point into the top of a 500-foot hill for unknown reasons, Luna said.

Airline officials say they still do now know what caused the accident.

The ATO said yesterday it will know the cause of the crash within a week.

According to ATO chief Jacinto Ortega Jr., the US National Transportation Safety Board in Washington has promised to expedite the analysis of the plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, and it vowed to come up with the results next week.

The instruments were sent to the NTSB on April 22 after searchers retrieved it from the crash site in Samal island near Davao City.

On Wednesday last week, an Air Philippines jet packed with Easter holidaymakers crashed and burst into flames on the resort island.

The 29-year-old Boeing 737-200 plane, carrying the registration number RPC 3010, was preparing to land at Davao airport at the end of an early morning flight from Manila, when it slammed into a coconut plantation in Mt. Kalangan, Sitio Camanlangan, Barangay San Isidro.

The plane disintegrated on impact, leaving only its tail section protruding from the ground. Parts of the wreckage were burning and body parts were strewn around the site, local reporters said from the crash scene.

Investigators still "don't have a hint" of what caused the plane crash, but some said it was the handiwork of terrorists.

According to Air Philippines spokeswoman Leah Sison, their duty officer at the Manila Domestic Airport received a call from a man claiming to have bombed the plane.

She said the unidentified caller "with a heavy Muslim accent" made the call before dawn on Thursday, and threatened to bomb two more Air Philippines planes.

Ortega said the ATO would not like to speculate on the cause or causes of the plane crash until it receives the official transcripts from the NTSB.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol also asked relatives of the crash victims to reject claims that the plane was sabotaged.

In a press statement, Piñol deplored these claims as "attempts" by certain people to muddle the issue.

"Any terrorist in his right frame of mind will not rig a bomb that will go off after the plane has reached its destination," said Piñol, whose sister-in-law, a nephew and a niece perished in the crash.

"There are tell-tale signs that big businessmen are collaborating to deceive the people," he said but did not elaborate.

Piñol, who launched a movement of the relatives called Oplan Veritas, urged the Department of Justice to stop the ATO from investigating the crash.

He said only an independent probe body can answer the questions behind the "mysterious incident."

On the other hand, Press Secretary Ricardo Puno said it is necessary that the ATO be part of the probe body.

"Whatever and whoever and any possible part in this incident itself will be subject to ATO's investigation," he said.

"The emotions are very high and we have nothing but sympathy for those who have lost their loved ones... but we hope that they will recognize that under the current situation, it is the ATO that is mandated by law to come out with this report," he added.

Transportation Secretary Vicente Rivera assured relatives of the victims that there will be no whitewash in the investigation.

"There will be no whitewash. Whoever is responsible for this incident will have to pay. Justice will be served to where it is due," he said.

In response to requests that the ATO be excluded from the probe, he suggested that relatives of the victims be part of any investigating body.

Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, meanwhile, urged the relatives to file a separate civil suit for damages while a probe on the criminal liability of the airline is still in progress.

He said the relatives of the victims can either file a case for indemnification before the Davao City Regional Trial Court or in Manila, "depending on the convenience of the litigant."

Should the complainants file charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide, Zuño said the Davao City Prosecutor's Office will prioritize the case.

"Definitely, we will expedite the preliminary investigation of the case," he said.

Under Article 1756 of the Civil Code, airlines "are presumed to have been at fault or to have acted negligently, unless they prove that they observed extraordinary diligence" in cases of death or injuries to passengers.

Another provision of the Code, Article 1755, also states that "a common carrier is bound to carry the passengers safely as far as human care and foresight can provide, using the utmost diligence of very cautious people, with a due regard for all the circumstances."

Legal experts said the civil aspect of the case can be integrated into the criminal case if the families want to. This is done in the form of seeking actual, moral and exemplary damages.

In a related development, relatives of the crash victims are also urging lawmakers to revive a bill creating an agency similar to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

They said this board should be the lead agency that must investigate all air accidents, not the ATO which they perceive to be biased to airline companies.

Some relatives of the crash victims said they see ATO chief Jacinto Ortega Jr. as favoring Lucio Tan, chairman of Philippine Airlines who is also the majority owner of Air Philippines.

Jacinto served as PAL pilot for 30 years.

On the other hand, Press Secretary Puno said Ortega "is a very competent and capable individual who has a lot of background in aviation."

Still, the relatives said a bill on air safety, which was crafted by then Capiz Congressman and now Trade Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II, would detach the investigating functions of the ATO and transfer it to the local NTSB.

Roxas filed the bill in February 1998, or after the crash of Cebu Pacific Airways jet on Mt. Sumagaya, Claveria, Misamis Oriental. Exactly 104 people died in that crash.

Meanwhile, forensics experts tasked to identify the charred and mangled remains of the victims said about 97 bodies have so far been identified and released to their families, and that 13 have been cremated.

Thirty-seven more have yet to be identified.

"It is too difficult," said Maximo Reyes, medico-legal chief of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) leading the 11-man forensics team.

DNA samples from the relatives and the victims were being matched, but the results will not be in after two months, he said.

Five European forensics experts who were dispatched to assist the NBI have also pulled out. "Their help is no longer necessary here," Reyes said.

The bodies and body parts have also been treated chemically to delay their decomposition, he added. -- With Marichu Villanueva, John Unson, Delon Porcalla, Rey Arquiza, Edith Regalado, Jose Aravilla, AFP