Friday, September 12, 2008 Probe on C-130 crash continues
TASK Force C-130 is looking into the possibility of sending technical divers to the sunken Philippine Air Force (PAF) C-130 Hercules Lockheed aircraft at the bottom of the Davao Gulf in order to determine what caused the 37-year-old aircraft to crash.
As floating the aircraft seemed to be an impossible task with the limited sophisticated technology and equipment that the PAF and the Philippine Navy have, the next best thing is to send technical divers to the site and retrieve some pieces of the aircraft to determine the cause of the crash.
Only two of the original four angles are now being looked into as both the sabotage and lightning angles had been struck down.
The two remaining possible causes for the crash that TF C-130 is now looking into are human or mechanical errors.
"We will see if there was an explosion, kung papasok ang longerones or the skin of the aircraft, ibig sabihin it was caused by the impact of the crash, pero kung palabas ito, meaning may pagsabog sa loob," PAF-Southern Mindanao group commander Colonel Isagani Silva told Sun.Star on Thursday.
Silva said there is an urgent need for the Davao International Airport (DIA) to acquire a radar system, considering it is an international airport.
"It is what you would call an aerodrome, wherein there are a number of airplanes who take off and land at any given time," Silva said.
The present system being used by the DIA is through radio contact wherein the pilot and the air tower controller communicate the location of the aircraft, including its altitude.
"They chart it on a map and they are able to predict the location of the aircraft in the succeeding minutes," Silva said.
A radar system, on the other hand, will immediately show the location of the aircraft and its altitude. (CPM)
