For the nth time! Let’s create the NTSB Law!

Last Friday night, I went with my son, Capt. Jesus Valeriano Avila (he is a pilot) to see the Warner Brothers movie “Sully” directed by Clint Eastwood at the Oriente Theater in Colonnade Mall along Colon St. This was a historical movie that happened on Jan. 15, 2009 when a US Airways Airbus A-320 Flt. No. 1549 flew from La Guardia International Airport and ran into a flock of Wild Geese that shut down its twin engines and Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger very well portrayed by actor Tom Hanks, and his co-pilot Capt. Jeff Skiles played by Aaron Eckhart ditched the Airbus into the frigid waters of the Hudson River in what was a real-to-reel life drama often dubbed as “Miracle in the Hudson” that the entire world saw on live television in CNN and other international news networks worldwide.

How the world has changed since. I just learned that this movie was released in the US also last Friday. So it was a simultaneous release worldwide. This is one movie that I urged not only for all pilots or cabin crew…but for all people who fly on airliners to watch so they can see for themselves that one of the reasons why the 155 passengers on board survived that crash landing was due to the fact that no one panicked! I also urge all those who work with the Civil Aviation Administration of the Philippines (CAAP) to watch this movie not once…but at least twice!

This is one movie that hopefully will jolt our Congressmen (attention House Speaker Bebot Alvarez) to finally enact a law creating the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), something that I have been harping on for many decades. Few columnists understand the necessity of the NTSB and for the nth time let me say it here that the CAAP should not be the investigator, the arbitrator or judge in air crash accidents simply because they could also be one of the reasons why there was a crash in the first place.

A few years ago when a Cebu Pacific Airbus plane landed in heavy crosswind at the Davao International Airport, the next day this incident was headline news (no one was injured) asa CAAP official declared that it was pilot error. How could a CAAP official declare that incident a pilot error before an official investigation even started? A few years ago, I talked about this with Capt. Amado Soliman, head of CAAP’s Investigation and Safety Board and he agreed with me for the need of an NTSB investigating board.

Four years ago on Aug. 18, 2012, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo perished in a crash off Masbate City on a Piper Seneca piloted by my good friend Capt. Jessup Bahinting. Capt. Jessup flew me over the skies of Cebu for the 10th anniversary of my Talkshow Straight from the Sky when we did a double taping for our TV show with Capt. Joy Roa of Air Safari fame. Capt. Bahinting was one of the best pilots that I have ever known…(he figured in a crash landing with then Cebu Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña in Borbon, north of Cebu City) yet that crash has not yet been fully investigated by a truly independent investigating body… as it is very easy to blame the crash to pilot error.

It is for this very reason why the Philippines under the slogan of “Change that you can touch” under the Duterte administration should prioritize the enactment of a law creating the NTSB so that all accidents on air, land and sea can be thoroughly investigated with a real timetable to follow. Watching the movie “Sully” was very exhilarating, after all everyone survived that crash with nary a scratch… in short, it was a disaster movie that had a happy ending.

Incidentally, last Sunday was the 15th-year anniversary of 9/11 in New York City when terrorists groups inspired by Osama Bin Laden used American airliners as flying bombs to crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which eventually collapsed. It was one aviation related disaster shown live on our TV screens horrifying the whole world where 3,000 Americans perished from this attack. You can say that 9/11 is the official date when the War on Terror officially began.

This is why New Yorkers especially the people working in emergency services agencies were all prepared for another aviation disaster when Capt. Sully Sullenberger crash landed his Airbus into the frigid waters of the Hudson River. Towards the end of this movie… the producers made an extra effort to thank the 1,200 people working in ferryboats, as policemen, firemen and Coast Guard who responded to this incident that resulted in saving the lives of its 155 passengers and crew.

Finally the lesson of this movie is the danger of bird strike by our airliners. For instance, the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) is surrounded by a bird sanctuary. I see Egrets flying over the wings of my plane when we are about to take off from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Environmentalists want these birds protected…but what about human beings? Who will protect man from such potential disasters?

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