- Armed Forces spokesman Colonel Ramon Zagara said the plane stalled after losing “thrust and lift” at low altitude.
- When the C-130 Hercules transport plane rushed out of the runway, it carried nearly a hundred people, most of whom were recent military graduates.
- The military previously stated that the C-130 was “in very good condition” when it crashed on a sunny day.
The armed forces said on Thursday that a Philippine plane carrying soldiers crashed in July after an “unrecoverable stall,” killing more than 50 people. This is one of the country’s worst military air crashes.
The C-130 Hercules transport plane dashed off the runway while attempting to land on Jolo Island in the southern part of Sulu Province, carrying nearly a hundred people, most of whom were recent military graduates.
Most of the dead were soldiers deployed to the island-a safe haven for Islamic radicals-as part of a counter-insurgency effort. Dozens of people were injured.
The Philippine Armed Forces (AFP) said in a statement: “According to the report of the investigation team, the accident cannot be attributed to a single factor.”
“During the critical phase of aircraft operations, aircraft components, environmental conditions, and crew reactions resulted in (a) unrecoverable stall,” it said but did not provide details.
The Armed Forces spokesperson, Colonel Ramon Zagara, told AFP that a “fault” of a component triggered a light, “causing the pilot to concentrate instead of restoring a stall or turning.”
Read here | The death toll in the crash of the Philippine military plane rises to 50
The aircraft stalled after losing “thrust and lift” at low altitude.
“Usually you can recover from the stall… if you have altitude, if you are up, but in this case it has no altitude,” Zagara said, without specifying which part of the plane failed.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said at the Congressional Committee hearing that he was told that the crash was caused by “a confluence of many events.”
He said on Wednesday that it included “defective instruments or systems, and of course the pilot’s response is not suitable for emergency situations.”
The military previously stated that the C-130 was “in very good condition” when it crashed on a sunny day.
The full results of the investigation have not yet been made public. It is not clear whether the findings are also based on information recovered from the flight data recorder, which has been sent to the United States for analysis.
Hard landing
Witnesses and survivors told investigators shortly after the crash that the plane landed “heavy,” then bounced twice, and then took off again. Lieutenant General Colletto Winluan, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, told AFP a few days after the crash society:
Then on the right side of the airport, it hit a tree-this is what the injured person said.
When the plane ploughed coconut trees and houses, at least three civilians who were not on the plane were also killed.
For decades, C-130 has been the main force of air forces around the world, used to transport troops, materials and vehicles.
The second-hand Hercules that crashed was purchased from the United States and shipped to the Philippines earlier this year.
The statement said that the purpose of the investigation was to “determine the cause of the accident, not to shirk responsibility.”
The armed forces also reported on Thursday that a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in June after “inadvertently entering a thunderstorm” and that the pilot suffered “space loss or dizziness”. All six people on board were killed.
Do you know you can listen to the article? Subscribe to news 24 Access this exciting feature and more.
