MANILA – The Philippine National Police (PNP) will review the guidelines on the usage of its air assets as part of its probe of the crash of the helicopter carrying PNP chief, General Archie Gamboa and seven others in San Pedro, Laguna.
Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, PNP deputy chief for operations and head of the Special Investigation Task Group (SITG), inspected the crash site with experts from the Philippine Air Force Safety Office and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) yesterday.
“We requested (their) assistance because they are the experts in this field,” Eleazar told reporters.
Initial investigation has been conducted by the local police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), he said.
Eleazar said the helicopter had no black box, an electronic recording device that preserves the recent history of an aircraft.
“Some say there is a flight radar and black box but we have yet to find out. According to the provincial director of Laguna who happened to be a pilot, this Bell 429 (helicopter) had no black box,” Eleazar noted.
Eleazar said authorities would make use of existing pieces of evidence, which include statements of witnesses, first responders, and passengers, in probing the accident.
“This is for us to see the whole situation to make necessary findings and recommendations,” he said.
While the investigation is ongoing, the flying of seven air assets of the PNP has been suspended, Eleazar said.
Such move was part of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), he added.
While he did not give a time table, Eleazar said they aim to finish the investigation at the soonest possible time.
“We need a thorough investigation. This is not a case where we are looking for a murderer or a pursuit operation where time is of the essence. Still, the faster, the better,” he said in Filipino.
This is the first time the PNP is conducting an investigation of an aircraft accident, he added.
He also assured the public that the grounding of the entire PNP fleet would not affect other police operations.
Aside from Gamboa, the other passengers of the helicopter were PNP spokesperson Brigadier General Bernard Banac, Director for Comptrollership Major General Jovic Ramos, Director for Intelligence Major General Mariel Magaway, Gamboa’s aide Captain Kevin Gayramara, pilots Lieutenant Colonel Roel Zalatar and Lieutenant Colonel Rico Macawili, and crew member Senior Master Sgt. Luis Estona.
Gamboa, Banac, Gayramara, Estona and the two pilots are in stable condition at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.
Meanwhile, Ramos and Magaway remain in critical condition at the Unihealth Southwoods Hospital and Medical Center (Unihealth) in Laguna Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa, respectively.
The helicopter hit a high tension wire upon take-off due to poor visibility caused by thick dust, causing it to crash in Barangay San Antonio at around 8 a.m. on Thursday. (PNA)
