Robredo plane already 'expired,' for what?

Robredo plane already 

'expired,' for what?

THE KEY THAT MAY SOLVE THE MYSTERY IN THE CRASH OF ROBREDO'S PLANE -- A grab from Youtube footage of the moments just after the crash of Beechcraft that killed 13 in Better Living Subdivision, including 3 children, on December 10, 2012. Inset is a grab while the star-crossed plane was crashing seconds before.

Robredo plane already 

'expired,' for what?

By BERTENI "TOTO" CATALUÑA CAUSING


The fear of this author that the plane that plunged former Interior Secretary Jessie Robredo into the sea 200 meters off Masbate would be a piece of evidence that speaks of rampant cheating in the flying hours committed by corrupt officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) is getting too alarming in his mind.

This firming-up fear is fueled by the revelation of the lone survivor of the Robredo crash.

This fear is too compelling that the CAAP must recall all certificates of airworthiness and certificates of registration issued for 2012 and require all airplanes to submit to new inspections or audits and REPLACE the CAAP personnel handling these duties because they were already blinded by corruption money.

This fear drove the author to demand that head of corrupt CAAP officials, including the past director generals, particularly sacked Ramon S. Gutierrez.

It was Gutierrez who signed the certificate of airworthiness and the certificate of registration of the plane that crashed on December 10, 2011 into the crowded Better Living Subd. in Parañaque City a few minutes after taking off Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).  Read further on this link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/108889/13-killed-in-crash%E2%80%933-on-the-plane-10-on-the-ground. Video of the actual plunging of this plane can be viewed on this footage. 

He signed them despite the fact that the "all-risk" insurance policy submitted was spurious or fake.

The survivor in Robredo crash, Sr. Inspector Jun Abrazado, declared in his affidavit: 

“While we were still up in the air, the display panel that also displayed directional map kept on flashing: ‘aviation expires 18 or November 28 2010.’"

The survivor further narrated: "I can see from the panel a distance notification that said 20 to 26 miles. I don’t know what the expiration message meant. I wanted  to inform Secretary about it but I did not want him to worry. I just made Secretary laugh by saying that there were many cases when a plane was flying with only one engine functioning.”

The author learned from insiders at the CAAP that one of the cheating schemes taking place in the renewal of registration and certificate of airworthiness is the deliberate hiding of the fact of how many hours have the planes flown during the past year.

The records of flying hours is very important because it is a standard operating procedure (SOP) that every material part of each plane, particularly of the engine, has a fixed time of use that when that limit is reached it must be replaced with new the part.

The reason why hiding of flying time records has been rampant is that it is too expensive to replace parts that owners of private planes conspire with airline regulators (the CAAP) in order to save on cost of replacing them.

The diligence in caring for airworthiness of airplanes is extraordinary compared to cars on land.  

Car's engine parts, particularly the timing chain or timing belt, have lifespans that when a specified number of kilometers of run is reached the chain or belt must be replaced.

In airplane, like the Piper Seneca that Robredo boarded for the last time of his life, engine parts have specified lifespan that when a number of flying hours is reached they should be replaced or the engine itself should be overhauled with new pistons and new rings and others or its blades be changed with new ones.

The fear further has been firmed up after it was also revealed that the Piper Seneca crash on August 18, 2012 was the second plane of Aviatour to crash in six months.

Aviatour, which has a flying school and charter business stationed at Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), owned the star-crossed Piper Seneca twin-engine that plunged Robredo, his aide Abrazado, its owner-pilot Captain Jessup Bahinting and the trainee-pilot.

Aviatour also owned the Cessna plane that crashed on March 4, 2012 in Camiguin province, killing a Norwegian woman and a Filipino pilot.  (See story at this site: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/27275/plane-crash-in-camiguin-claims-norwegian-tourist) 

Killed in this Camiguin incident were Rachel Strande, 37, and the Filipino pilot Christian Cesar Cebrecus.

Strande’s husband, Lars, 56, and their three-year-old son, Jeus Ola, were critically injured.The Indonesian copilot Nurmala Dewi was also injured.

Fueling more fears is the fact that it has been confirmed by Abrazado that the dash panel of the Piper Seneca plane flashed "Check Engine" sign. It confirmed that at least one of the two engine conked out.

Abrazado further said in his sworn statement that it was the right engine that went off early on while they had just taken off MCIA.  But, he did not know the reason why Bahinting decided to proceed and do an emergency landing on Masbate island.

Abrazado also said that their plane actually attempted to land on the runway but it missed. He said the plane nearly crash-landed on a populous area in Masbate City but Bahinting pulled it to the right and they tried to go up and somersault down to the sea, sending a loud explosion.

It is presumed that no engine would conk out if it is in good condition and its parts are relatively new. The fact that the right engine of the Piper Seneca went out it means no less than expired material parts were in it and were never replaced with new ones.

See the more profound stories of Abrazado at this link:  http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/254784/robredo-plane-avoided-crashing-into-populous-village-survivor.

  Again. this author demands: 

AX all those involved in the audits and issuances of certificates of airworthiness and certificates of registration!