CAAP looking into possible liability of Xiamen Airlines pilot
MANILA, Philippines — A team from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines is looking into the possible liability of the pilot of a Xiamen Airlines plane that skidded off the runway at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport a few weeks ago.
CAAP Director General Jim Sydiongco said the recording of the correspondence between the air traffic controller and the pilot could not be used to determine the possible liability of the latter.
"The Civil Aviation Authority has its own flight safety investigation committee. This looks into possible criminal liability (of the pilot)," Sydiongco told the Senate public services committee Wednesday.
Sydiongco stressed that the cockpit voice recording and cockpit data recording are not necessary in determining what really happened during the incident.
Civil aviation officials have brought the Chinese airline plane's flight data recorder to Singapore for analysis.
"Now, when we say it's the pilot's fault, did he do it on purpose? Was that what he wanted? There is a levelling on the liability," Sydiongco said, adding that other investigation methods will be used.
Discrepancy on ground, cockpit
A timeline presented by the CAAP during the Senate inquiry showed that at 11:40 p.m. on August 16, Xiamen Airlines flight CXA8667 initiated a go around. The control tower then informed the Chinese airline plane of the current weather condition.
At 11:41 p.m., the Xiamen plane announced the weather condition, which is heavy rain. The control tower, however, cleared the plane for landing at around 11:53 p.m., which the pilot acknowledged.
Sydiongco told the Senate panel that the pilot should not land the plane if he could not see the runway clearly.
"For the pilot, even if he was given weather visibility that measures throughout the full length of the runway, if he himself could not see the runway, he should not have continued the landing," Sydiongco said.
The CAAP director general added that it is the pilot's discretion to land in case of discrepancy with the control tower's views of the weather condition.
Marlene Singson, CAAP Chief of Aerodome Division, explained that cockpit observation could be different from the ground observation.
"The cockpit observation is done by the pilot while on flight while we do the ground observation... The pilot might have a different perception from the cockpit. It is different when the pilot is subjected to thaat kind of situation," Singson said.
Asked on how the real timeline during the incident will be determined, Sydiongco said it will be released in the flight data recorder, which was sent to Singapore.
"We will know that when the flight data recorder is out because in the handling of the airplane and the pilot, we have what we call the stable approach parameters. Was your rate of closure correct? Was your sink rate correct? Was your configuration rate correct? Was your landing correct?" Sydiongco told the Senate panel.
The flight data recording will be synchronized with the interviews and will be analyzed by aircraft accident investigators.
Sydiongco, however, did not give a specific date in when the results of the plane's black box will be released but he earlier said that it will be "as soon as possible."
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