A COMBINATION of factors caused a C-130 transport plane of the Philippine Air Force to crash in Patikul town in Sulu last July 4, leaving 50 military personnel and three civilians dead and many others injured.
Armed Forces spokesman Col. Ramon Zagala said the findings were based on a recently-concluded investigation of the Air Force.
“Material, human and environmental factors were determined by the Philippine Air Force Aircraft Accident Investigation Board as cause of the ill-fated C-130 crash in Sulu,” said Zagala.
Zagala said the Air Force will issue a more detailed statement on the cause of the crash.
He said the investigation report stated “no single factor can be attributed to have exclusively caused the accident.”
“It was most probably due to actual or perceived material factors, and induced human factors which were aggravated by local and environment conditions,” said Zagala.
“The aircraft component, the environmental condition and aircrew response led to unrecoverable stall in a critical phase of the aircraft operation,” Zagala also said.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana cited the PAF report when he appeared before a House panel last Wednesday to defend the defense department’s proposed P297.1-billion budget for 2022. He said pilot error and defective instruments caused the crash.
“One, for the C-130, is defective instruments or systems. Plus, of course, the reaction of the pilot was not also appropriate for the emergency, so nag-crash (it crashed),” Lorenzana said.
Officials earlier said the plane overshot the runway of the Jolo airport, failed to regain power and crashed at the settlement area in Patikul. It was transporting Army soldiers from Cagayan de Oro City who were due to help fight Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Sulu.
Fifty soldiers onboard and three civilians on the ground died and 46 other soldiers and four civilians on the ground were injured. Most of the soldiers who died could not be immediately identified because they were burned beyond recognition.
Last June 23, a PAF Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a night proficiency training in Capas, Tarlac that left three pilots and three other personnel dead. Zagala said a “confluence of events” also triggered the incident.
“Investigators found out that the chopper inadvertently entered a thunderstorm and was compounded by spatial disorientation or vertigo by the pilot, as the cause of the accident,” said Zagala.
Lorenzana earlier said the Black Hawk crash was due to bad weather. He said the pilots entered the clouds and caused the pilots to have vertigo.
“The goal of the investigation, based on international practice on handling crashed aircraft, was to determine the cause of the accident rather than apportion blame,” Zagala said of the two probes.
“This will help us avoid similar events in the future by implementing additional safety initiatives, strengthening protocols and procedures, as well as instituting training interventions for our aircrew and personnel,” added Zagala.
