In this photo released by Armed Forces of the Philippines Public Affairs Office, the wreckage of a Piper Seneca, which crashed killing three people including Philippine Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, sits on a raft at Masbate city on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said the investigation into the plane crash might take a while with probers taking into consideration all possibilities that led to the crash. AP PHOTO/ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES
MANILA, Philippines—The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has formed a “special investigation committee” that will look into all possible angles of the airplane crash that killed three people, including Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.
The committee, representing various sectors of the Philippine aviation, was created to investigate the crash of the Piper Seneca off Masbate City on August 18, CAAP director general William Hotchkiss said in Authority Order 223-12 issued Sunday.
Captain Amado Soliman, chief of the CAAP accident investigation board, will lead the committee composed of experts from the aviation industry, CAAP said in the statement released by the Department of Transportation and Communications.
Captain Beda Badiola will be vice chairman. Other members are retired Philippine Air Force (PAF) General Ramon Ragasa, Cebu Pacific Airlines director for safety Captain Felipe Timola Jr., and PAF Colonel Allen Paredes.
Four support groups will also be created to look at all possible angles that could have caused the accident: the human factor group, the airframe/structure group, the powerplant group, and the aircraft systems group.
“The human factor group is composed of Dr. David Gil and Frank Barcenilla; the airframe/structure group is composed of Arnel Agan and Alberto Dizon; the powerplant group members includes Vic Panganiban and Engr, Manny dela Cruz; and the aircraft systems group is made up of Pablo Quiballo, Jr. and Socrates Coquia,” it said.
Hotchkiss said the groups are “tasked to assist the Special Investigation Committee in performing the crash site investigation, collating and analyzing pieces of evidence of the subject aircraft accident.”
“This will be comprehensive and exhaustive but this is not analysis by paralysis. We will find out what happened to strengthen the safety regulations,” Roxas said in the statement.
CAAP had earlier created a composite team to conduct preliminary investigation of the Piper Seneca plane carrying Robredo and his aide-de-camp, June Abrazado, and piloted by Captain Jessup Bahinting with Nepalese flight student Kshitiz Chand.
The plane crashed some 800 meters off the coast of Masbate after reportedly requesting to conduct an emergency landing in Masbate Airport due to engine trouble.
Robredo was heading to Naga City from Cebu after a seminar he attended. Abrazado had managed to escape the plane before it sunk and was the sole survivor of the crash.