Ex-Phivolcs chief, 8 others killed in Ecija chopper crash

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — A military helicopter carrying a group of government scientists crashed in a mountainous area in Nueva Ecija yesterday morning, killing all nine people on board, one of them former Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) chief Raymundo Punongbayan.

Rescue helicopters were scrambled within hours and sent to Mt. Namat in Gabaldon town as six badly charred bodies were initially recovered from the crash site, with the remaining bodies due to be retrieved later.

Officials said among those killed in the crash were four scientists from the Phivolcs and four Air Force personnel.

The eight other fatalities were identified as Norman Tungol, Phivolcs chief geologist; Jessie Daligdig, a scientist of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST); and Dindo Javier and Orlando Abengonza of the Phivolcs documentation section.

Air Force helicopter pilot Lt. Reynaldo Gerodias and his co-pilot Lt. Jayson Salazar, along with crewmembers S/Sgt. Edgar Ramolete and Sgt. Whilbert Tacata, also died in the crash.

Officials stressed the cause of the crash is still being investigated since it occurred under clear skies.

"The aircraft exploded but we don’t know if it was upon impact or while in mid-air," said Senior Inspector Pablo Cruz, Gabaldon police chief, who was among the first to arrive at the crash scene near Barangay Ligaya.

Nueva Ecija police director Senior Superintendent Alex Monteagudo said the helicopter, an old Huey, apparently burst into flames while in flight.

Witnesses, however, claimed seeing the ill-fated helicopter hovering erratically over the jungle canopy before it caught a tree branch and crashed into the face of a cliff.

Officials said six of the nine badly burned bodies had been recovered by the military and police rescuers who had to hike through the dense jungles of Mt. Namat for two hours to the crash site, about seven kilometers from Gabaldon.

Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) chairman Sen. Richard Gordon said they organized the flight to conduct an aerial inspection of a planned resettlement site for victims of last November’s deadly landslides around the town of Dingalan, Aurora.

Gordon said Punongbayan, the country’s most famous seismologist who became a ranking official of the Red Cross after retirement, had inspected the resettlement area by land last week.

"He (Punongbayan) said he identified potential areas of danger (of further landslides) and he wanted to confirm it by air. So I went to Secretary (Avelino) Cruz of the Department of National Defense to borrow a helicopter," Gordon added.

The US-made Bell UH-1H aircraft, with a crew of four, was on its way back from Dingalan after a survey mission.

Punongbayan was leading Red Cross officials and government seismologists on a "hazard assessment" mission to Dingalan town when their helicopter crashed on the way to Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija where they were going to refuel for the flight back to Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

"We don’t want to speculate on the cause of the accident, though we are not discounting the (possibility) that there could have been... environmental reasons that caused the crash," said Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Restituto Padilla.

A team of investigators has been sent to conduct a probe into the accident, Padilla said.

"Our investigators are still in the area and we are still awaiting their findings which will serve as our basis (for) whether or not to order the grounding of all our UH-IH for inspections," he said.

Padilla explained that, in past air accidents involving a certain type of aircraft, the Air Force usually grounds all aircraft of similar types and models for safety inspections.

PAF operations chief Col. Eduardo Oban Jr. said the helicopter left Villamor Air Base in Pasay City at 6:58 a.m.

He said the chopper made a stopover at Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija for refueling at around 7:40 a.m.

After several minutes, the chopper took off again for Dingalan town.

At around 10:14 a.m., Oban claimed receiving a phone call from the Air Transportation Office (ATO) that a helicopter had crashed in the area of Gabaldon.

"At around 11 a.m., we received confirmation that there was indeed a crash and it involved a Philippine Air Force chopper," Oban said.

Accidents involving the Vietnam-War vintage Huey helicopters are common since the PAF is among the most poorly equipped air forces in Southeast Asia.

According to PAF records, the ill-fated helicopter was bought by the Armed Forces under its modernization program in 2002.

"Based on our records, we acquired this (helicopter in) 2002 February," Oban said.

He added the PAF currently maintains a fleet of 38 similar Hueys, 17 of which have been newly refurbished under its modernization program.

Oban pointed out that the helicopter that crashed was not among the newly purchased aircraft.

But he stressed all PAF helicopters and airplanes are flown following strict maintenance procedures.

President Arroyo condoled with the families of the deceased, saying that with Punongbayan’s "tragic death" the country lost an "exemplary public servant."

"We condole with his family as well as those of the other passengers who perished in the crash," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

Grieving relatives, meanwhile, broke into tears as the bodies were transferred from the helicopters to waiting funeral vehicles at the Villamor Air Base.

Punongbayan gained international respect and recognition in his field of expertise during the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, which he helped predict.

During his stint as Phivolcs chief, Punongbayan was also the authority in exhaustive discussions on the July 16, 1990 earthquake that devastated Northern Luzon. — With Ric Sapnu, Rainier Allan Ronda, Jaime Laude, Benjie Villa, Manny Galvez, James Mananghaya, Aurea Calica, AFP, AP