Manila officials trade accusations

As survivors and families of more than a dozen passengers who perished in the Laoag Air flight 585 crash try to pick up the pieces, authorities in Manila are trading accusations over who is to blame for what has been considered the country's worst air disaster in two years.

The last air disaster in the Philippines was on April 19, 2000, when a Philippine Airlines Boeing 737 flight to southern Davao City crashed on Samal island minutes before it was scheduled to land, killing all 131 passengers and crew.

"It was an accident waiting to happen," House of Representatives member, Imee Marcos, said as she described the tragedy on Monday morning when the plane crashed in the murky waters of Manila Bay, 500 metres from the shore.

Marcos, who lost constituents of her province of Ilocos Norte in the crash, said the air transport office refused to heed earlier warnings on the airworthiness of the airline whose planes are "very old".

Laoag Air's franchise to operate domestic passenger air transport was approved by the 11th congress two years ago.

"We've been warning them so many times in the past about the violations of Laoag Air," noted Marcos, who belongs to the current 12th congress. "But, ironically, the firm was allowed to operate their very old aircraft units and given authority to expand flights to other provinces."

Marcos and fellow Ilocos Norte Rep. Roquito Ablan reportedly have a long running feud with former Ilocos Norte governor, Rodolfo Farinas, who was behind the approval of Laoag Air's franchise at the House of Representatives when he was a member of congress.

Ablan described Laoag Air's fleet of ageing Fokker F-27 as "flying Frankensteins".

He said Laoag Air's owner, Malaysian Paul Ng, brought four F-27s, cannibalised one of them, and used the spare parts to make the three fly.

The plane that crashed was originally acquired by Philippine Airlines during the early 1970s and later sold to the Philippine air force. Subsequently, it was sold to the Indonesian air force, which again sold it to a private firm in New Zealand allegedly for mapping purposes before Laoag Air got hold of the aircraft.

Laoag Air was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January, 1995, and started operations a month later. Its franchise, however, was approved in December, 2000.

"For five years, Laoag Air, which has no maintenance personnel, hired "backyard" repair crew whenever engine parts got worn-out," Ablan stated.

Senator Vicente Sotto III said they approved Laoag Air's application for franchise on condition that they would upgrade their fleet to modern jets. "Apparently that did not happen," he said in a television interview.

He and Senator Juan Flavier will be initiating an investigation into the tragedy to determine if there is a need to revoke Laoag Air's franchise.

"I will dig into the Senate records and find out exactly what Laoag Air told the Senate hearing at that time. If investigation shows that mechanical failure was the reason for the crash, their licence will be revoked immediately," Sotto said.

The flight 585 crashed into Manila Bay on Monday morning shortly after take off for a one-hour flight to northern Batanes province.

On board were 29 passengers and five crewmembers. Eighteen people were killed and 15 survived while one remains unaccounted for.

Apparently, despite its antiquated fleet of aircraft, Laoag Air enjoys good standing with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the agency tasked with regulating commercial and civilian air transport.

In its recent decision, CAB even gave Laoag Air the authority to service international routes.

A report in the daily, Manila Standard said that the carrier has a pending hearing before the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for the approval of its scheduled flights and services next week, which will allow the airline to advertise their flight operations and fare.

"CAB has approved only non-scheduled services for Laoag Air, which means it can only fly on a chartered basis. There is a pending hearing regarding the approval of scheduled services next week," the Manila Standard reported quoting an unnamed source.