LIA ‘black box’ found empty

The two flight data recorders recovered from the ill-fated Fokker 27 aircraft of Laoag International Airlines (LIA) contained no recorded information detailing the last minutes of the flight before it crashed.

At the conclusion of the hearing conducted by the Department of Transportation and Communications yesterday, lawyer Deo de Ocampo, one of the members of the DOTC fact-finding team, disclosed the findings of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) which said no information was retrieved on the so-called black boxes (flight data recorders) after having been decoded and read out.

"The black boxes were read out in the facility and laboratory of NTSB in Washington DC. But unfortunately, the experts there retrieved no information from the boxes. There was no evidence found," De Ocampo said.

He said the aluminum foil, which was used as a recording medium, had been recycled and the recorded data on it could not be decoded. "We don’t know which is the latest flight (in the data recorder) for there has been an overlap in the record," De Ocampo said.

DOTC Undersecretary Arturo Valdez said the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder had not been damaged by the crash.

Valdez, the chairman of the five-man fact finding body, said the cockpit voice recorder, which should have taped the conversations inside the cockpit before the crash, also was not operating.

The black boxes record the communications inside the cockpit and the overall situation of the aircraft. Both are supposed to operate automatically once the aircraft’s engine runs running.

De Ocampo said the NTSB has ascertained that the black box package did not sustain any damage.

NTSB probers, however, discovered that an aluminum-type flight data recorder (FDR) had been used.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) have banned the use of aluminum-type FDRs since 1985 in favor of digital recording.

De Ocampo said the NTSB discovered that the FDR used by LIA had a total of 800 recording hours on both sides of its aluminum foil.

The maximum capacity had been consumed but LIA apparently "re-used" one side of the foil for recording, in violation of international and local air safety standards, De Ocampo said.

On the other hand, an LIA official claimed the black box was not necessary for the safe flight of an airplane and that the "blank" black box of Flight 585 "did not affect the safe performance of the Fokker-27 involved in the crash,

Alvin Yater, LIA assistant vice president, said in a statement the Fokker 27 was given a thorough maintenance examination and checkup by the LIA maintenance crew, headed by LIA vice president Tonton Somera, before it took off for Laoag City on Nov. 11. It crashed on Manila Bay a few minutes after taking off from the Manila domestic airport.

Yater, in his statement, claimed that the examination of the black box was not part of the maintenance checkup "because it is not an instrument vital or relevant to the safe flight of an aircraft."

He said the LIA could thus not be blamed for the condition of the black box which was retrieved after the accident.

Video footage taken before the crash and testimonies of witnesses indicated the aircraft suffered engine failure causing it to crash into Manila Bay, killing 19 of its 34 passengers and crew.

However, there has been a growing suspicion that the plane was not properly maintained.

"It turned out that what was brought to the US were not black boxes but blank boxes. This, however, will not (impair) our investigation," Valdez said.

Valdez also stressed the airplane should not have taken off in the first place. "That plane should have not been flown. These black boxes are wanting in compliance (of standards)," he said.

Valdez said they are now in the process of wrapping up the details of their investigation before submitting their findings and recommendations to President Arroyo on Friday.

He said the DOTC panel had gathered the testimonies of the survivors, the pilot and the crewmembers, the rescuers and the officials of the Air Transportation Office (ATO) and Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), after taking into account the evidence gathered from the damaged aircraft.

Valdez said the board is also focusing on other issues relative to the crash.

"There are other issues that we are looking into," he said. "One is the main fuel switch of Flight 585 which was in shut-off position when we checked the aircraft."

Valdez explained the shut-off position means there was no fuel supply to the main engine from the main tank. This apparently caused the engines of the Fokker plane to stop, minutes after it took off.

He said the DOTC panel also observed poor supervision and maintenance from the LIA management.

On the other hand, the LIA management said they are now finalizing the compensation package for the fatalities and the survivors.

In a statement, Alvin Yater, LIA vice president for sales and marketing, stressed they are not trying to influence the results of the DOTC probe "in any way."

He said talks between LIA’s legal department and its Australian insurer, Heath Lamber, on the compensation package are now being finalized.

"We have not abandoned any of our basic moral and financial responsibility for those who trust and continue to trust us," Yater said.

He said the amount of the final compensation and financial settlement with the victims and survivors will be determined by LIA lawyers in consultation with Heath Lamber. – With AFP