Monday, April 30, 2007 Veco, PAF urge local governments to regulate kite-flying, as Cebu City has done By Rene H. Martel & Aledel Gonzalez-Cuizon Sun.Star Staff Reporters
A MILITARY helicopter’s crash-landing on two tricycles Saturday afternoon “underscores” the need for Cebuanos to be extra careful when flying kites, a Cebu City councilor said.
Just last week, the Cebu City Council asked the Philippine National Police to strictly enforce the ban on kite flying on roads, streets, bridges, alleys and thoroughfares for the public’s safety.
The council, upon the motion of Councilor Edgardo Labella, said although kite-flying is the Cebuanos’ favorite pastime during summer, it is dangerous especially when the kites snag power lines and electrocute children.
City Ordinance 1471 sets the guidelines for kite-flying, which includes the provision that children below 12 years old should be accompanied by an adult.
It also orders that kites should be flown only in an open area of about 3,000 square meters.
But since it is difficult to find an open area in Cebu City, especially in the urban barangays, children risk flying kites on roads and even on top of buildings.
Authorities suspect the helicopter snagged kites near the air base and the nylon threads got caught in the helicopter motor’s swash plate, which helps the pilot control direction.
The crash killed nine persons. An initial report said the chopper began to suffer engine problems at 400 feet.
In an interview, Labella said what happened should serve as a grim reminder of the perils of flying kites in crowded areas.
The City Council sent copies of his resolution, approved Wednesday last week, to the Cebu City Police Office for it to enforce the ordinance.
In a separate interview, Visayan Electric Company Inc. spokesperson Ethel Natera reminded Cebu City residents of Ordinance 1471, and urged lawmakers of neighboring towns and cities to enact a similar measure.
She said that if the towns and cities under its coverage area will have a similar law, it would greatly help reduce the number of accidents and power interruptions caused by kites that get entangled in the company’s high-tension wires.
Veco serves Metro Cebu, up to Liloan town in the north and San Fernando town in the south.
A day after the crash, the four-meter-wide Humay-Humay Road in Barangay Gun-ob, Lapu-Lapu City became an instant magnet for curious onlookers.
“Grabeha ani oy,” said some of the people gathered outside the blue rope that cordoned off the crash site.
With its tail stuck on the electrical wires, the chopper and the tricycles it crushed blocked the entire road.
Armed with their camera-phones and still and video cameras, people took shot after shot of the wreckage and whatever was left of the victims—a left shoe and some matter reportedly from the skull of one of the victims.
Some of them left when they could no longer bear the stench.
Since there was no other road to the market and church, some residents had to enter the cordoned area but were told not to get near the wreckage.
Even after the chopper and damaged tricycles were taken off the road later in the morning, traffic at the site was still slow, as vehicles slowed down to look at the wreckage.
Maj. Gen. Pedro Ike Insierto inspected the crash site around 8 a.m. yesterday and talked with the investigators from the safety office of the Villamor Air Base.
Insierto told Sun.Star Cebu that the helicopter pilot tried to land at the basketball court just 25 meters from the crash site.
However, he hasn’t talked with the pilot yet as the latter is still in the hospital.
