CAAP to receive Robredo's plane wreckage Thursday
-A A +AWednesday, September 5, 2012
MANILA -- The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) will inspect in Manila the wreckage of the ill-fated plane that crashed and killed Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo when it is transported to the nation's capital on Thursday.
CAAP Deputy Director General Rodante Joya said they will move the pieces of evidence straight to their office along MIA Road in Pasay City when the vessel carrying the plane wreckage arrives at the Manila South Harbor on Thursday at 2 p.m.
The vessel set sail earlier Wednesday at 5:30 a.m., according to Admiral Edmund Tan, head of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).
The PCG vessel is carrying four crates, which contain the fuselage, two wings and engines and other pieces of the Piper Seneca plane, registered as RP-C4431.
The plane parts were recovered from the crash site located about 800 meters off the shore of Masbate.
Joya said the wreckage will be inspected by the five-man Special Investigation Committee formed by Caap, which is composed of aviation industry experts headed by Capt. Amado Soliman, chief of the Caap accident investigation board.
Other members include Captain Beda Badiola, retired General Ramon Ragasa (representing general aviation sector), Captain Felipe Timola, Jr. (representing airline industry), and Colonel Allen Paredes (representing military aviation sector).
Badiola is a senior vice president of the Philippine Airlines while Timola is Cebu Pacific Airlines director for safety.
Paredes is from the Philippine Air Force like Ragasa, a retired general.
The committee also has four support groups that were tasked to look into the crash on different angles: human factor, airframe and structure, powerplant group, and aircraft systems.
The Airframe/Structure Special Group will assist the investigation team in inspecting the right engine, which is considered by CAAP as the "key part" of the probe.
"This will determine if indeed it was due to technical or mechanical problem that caused it to fail," CAAP Director General William Hotchkiss III said last week.
The special committee formed by CAAP will submit periodic report in the course of the investigation.
The plane crash also killed Captain Jessup Bahinting and Nepalese co-pilot Kshitiz Chand. (Emmanuel Louis Bacani/Sunnex)
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