Back to the crash

With the burial of Capt. Jessup Bahinting, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) should intensify its investigation into the Aug. 18 plane crash that claimed the pilot’s life as well as the lives of his Nepalese co-pilot and Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Initial results of the CAAP investigation showed that the Piper Seneca’s locator device failed to function at the time of the crash which occurred at past 5 p.m.

That device, in lieu of the so-called black box available in bigger planes,  could have provided search and rescue teams the crucial edge in locating the plane sooner than the three days it took to finally find and recover the remains of Robredo, Bahinting and Kshitiz Chand.

What the CAAP team has left to go on, aside from the wreckage is the testimony of Sen. Insp. Jun Abrazado, Robredo’s aide who recounted that one of the devices in the plane failed to function.

Despite this deficiency, Abrazado said both Bahinting and Chand were remarkably calm and continued to adjust the controls until the plane went into a tailspin and crashed headlong into the waters.

We could only speculate on the what-ifs; what if somehow the three men managed to stay conscious following the crash? Would they have freed themselves easily? What if the locator was functioning at the time, would Coast Guard personnel have found the plane and rescued the victims in time?

These what-ifs are immaterial at this point but we cannot help wonder if something humanly possible should have been done beforehand to ensure the survival of the passengers and pilots in worst-case scenarios.

More importantly, did Bahinting, Chand and company do everything in their power to make sure that the Cebu to Naga City trip could have proceeded without a hitch?

Based on the account of Bahinting’s wife, the trip was planned a day ahead which meant that it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision by Robredo who wanted to spend that Saturday with his family.

It wasn’t a small coincidence that Bahinting planned to proceed to Ginatilan town, southern Cebu to also spend quality time with his own family in their resort after the Naga City trip. Instead, both men were denied the chance to do so.

Understandable that the Bahinting family, their friends and sympathizers took offense to the report that the pilot didn’t have a license prior to the Robredo trip but even they realized that the CAAP investigation should be completed if only to clear the air about the company’s safety procedures and make sure that their pilots and their passengers are protected.

Hence, the public joins them in urging the CAAP to expedite and thoroughly complete their investigation into the crash.