Palace says probe into Cebu Pacific crash-landing will be impartial
MANILA—Malacañang tried to assure the public on Wednesday of an impartial investigation into Sunday’s rough landing by a Cebu Pacific plane at the Davao International Airport despite an aviation investigator’s previous links to the airline.
President Aquino’s spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines should be trusted to conduct a thorough investigation.
Lacierda said the President has not given a deadline for the completion of the investigation, and pending completion of this investigation it would be premature to determine Cebu Pacific’s culpability.
“General (William) Hotchkiss can assure the public of an impartial investigation on this matter, regardless of whether they are connected previously to any airline or any airline company,’’ he said at a Malacañang news briefing. “That’s something we can assure the public, that there will be an impartial investigation on this incident.’’
He was responding to a question that a member of CAAP is a former executive of Cebu Pacific.
John Cu Unjieng Andrews, who was appointed CAAP deputy director general in September 2012, was vice president for flight operations of Cebu Pacific from 1998 to 2003, according to his appointment papers posted on www.gov.ph.
He was also airline captain and administration pilot of Philippine Airlines from 1967 to 1983. He was a captain in the Philippine Air Force from 1959 to 1967.
Cebu Pacific’s Airbus A320-200 missed the runway at Davao International Airport in stormy weather and landed on its nose last Sunday night on a strip of grass next to the runway’s shoulder. No one was hurt, but the airline and its crew have drawn strong and widespread criticisms for allegedly failing to promptly calm and evacuate the passengers.
CAAP officials initially pointed to a human error as possible cause of the accident, with the pilot likely failing to correct his heading while landing against in a crosswind.
Lacierda said Malacañang preferred to await the outcome of the CAAP investigation and would not comment on the culpability of Cebu Pacific.
“Well, there’s an ongoing probe right now. I am not in a position to say whether they should be liable or not because the CAAP is presently conducting a probe of the incident,’’ he said. “So we’ll just wait for the conclusion of the CAAP probe as to what would be their eventual findings.’’
Similar accidents have happened in the past and this “is not a peculiar event,’’ Lacierda said.
“No such ultimatum was given. I’m sure that Secretary (Joseph Emilio) Abaya (Department of Transportation and Communications) has been updating the President on the goings-on, on the Cebu Pacific incident, on the CAAP probe,’’ he said.
Lacierda declined comment on any plan by the passengers to file a class suit. “If there is one, we are not aware of one yet,’’ he said.
