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C130 “HERCULES” is basically an “all weather” cargo aircraft utilized by several civilian corporations and military organizations due to its reliability. All weather means that the aircraft is designed to withstand weather turbulences while on flight except of course for extreme weather disturbances such as super-typhoons and the like. This prototype of aircraft has proven its worth to be the safest cargo aircraft in the world since its birth four or five decades ago. It has four powerful engines independently working together base on the power requirement needed for a safe and comfortable flight. It also has individual engine warning system routinely being monitored by the pilot, the co-pilot and the flight engineer every now and then. To make a long story short, C130 Aircraft is precisely dependable if it is not being abused. In fact, 3-engine takeoff or flying 3 engines is just an ordinary flying routine for veteran pilots and crew. The term “abused” is descriptively used because the succeeding pages will thoroughly explain on the possible factors that led to its tragic but mysterious accident. According to a C130 Pilot, there are only three factors that can cost the lives of C130 Pilots and Crew during flight operations and they are: a. bleed air b. propeller failure c. foolishness Since the aircraft is submerged in the Gulf of Davao with no firm hint that the PAF will resurface it to unearth the “real cause of accident”, the author will instead focus his assessment on the “foolishness” aspect because this factor constitute the entire picture on how the organizational system works to the aircraft after all. Foolishness can be attributed to the corruption practices of the PAF and operational mediocrity of PAF Flight Operations which if we put in one sweeping generalization, Flight Safety is actually being sacrificed!
Let us now dissect foolishness into three “intriguing” aspects of contention.
1. LIGHTNING STRIKE
2. SABOTAGE/ENEMY FIRE
3. MAINTENANCE MALPRACTICE
But before we plunge on the lengthy justification on each of the three intriguing aspects of foolishness, let us first establish the expected position of C130 4593 along the flight route base on the last transmission of C130 4593 to Davao Control Tower. Here are the excerpts of communication between Davao Tower and Air Force 4593. SORRY SIRS, NO TIME TO GET THE EXCHANGE OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE PILOTS AND THE TOWER. This is the established departure procedure of RUNWAY 23 of Davao International Airport.
As shown in the cropped picture above, AF 4593 is required to make a Left Turn within 5 Nautical Miles upon airborne to intercept Radial 180. If Radial 180 has been intercepted, AF 4593 is again required to maintain at that radial while climbing until 4000 feet indicated altitude. Upon reaching 4000 ft Indicated Altitude along Radial 180, AF 4593 is again required to make another left but this time Left Procedure Turn within 10 Nautical Miles (see fish hook illustration below) to cross Davao VOR/DME Fix at 8000 feet or above. Or in lay man’s term, AF 4593 is required to go back over Davao VOR/DME Fix at 8000ft or above but must turn left first before turning clockwise direction in going back above the station. Upon reaching back over Davao Station (Fix), that is now the time AF 4593 can start flying the approved airway (B473) in going to Iloilo Station as shown in the green encircled diagram below.
Flight Route Left Procedure Turn
Since AF 4593 has just initiated the first Left Turn in its flight route, it can be established that the aircraft was on its way of intercepting Radial 180 and has not reach the Altitude limit of 4000’ yet before performing the so called “Left Procedure Turn”. Of course, the aircraft can be inside or has just passed the 5NM marker when it initiated its first left maneuvering turn but still in the process of intercepting Radial 180 while climbing towards 4000’ altitude limit. So if we put its aerial displacement over the terrain map, we can now at least confirm its estimated location in relation to the time of its last radio transmission. This is how the flight route looks like and compares it to the actual crash site of the aircraft.
SORRY SIRS, NO TIME TO GET PICTURES THIS TIME
LIGHTNING STRIKE
This environmental hazard (lightning strike) do exists in flying profession. In fact there is a recorded incident that C130 aircraft crashed due to this lightning strike. Interestingly, that recorded incident happened several decades ago when C130 or all aircraft for that matter still were not equipped yet with lightning arresters. That incident gave birth to safety enhancement of all air assets to prevent similar accidents to happen by installing number of Lightning Arresters to the aircraft so that the electrical deposits brought about by lightning will be discharged right away. These Lightning Arresters are now proven as the sole protective devices against lightning onslaught while on flight. It is for this reason that all aircraft can withstand ordinary weather disturbances while on flight. How much more for the C130 aircraft whose prototype is designed to be an all weather aircraft? Will it be believable if C130 4593 met its tragic accident due to Lightning Strike? Personally speaking, Lightning strike is very remote to be considered otherwise all pilots should now be wary if that’s the case. Therefore environmental factor especially lightning strike can be ruled out logically. Unless physical evidences thru resurfacing the aircraft is examined, lightning strike will remain not party to its fatal accident.
SABOTAGE/ENEMY FIRE
This angle cannot also be just ruled out without resurfacing the aircraft. But for argumentation purposes, we will try to make further investigations why sabotage/enemy fire angle should be integrated. The term sabotage or enemy fire will always associate on how efficient security measures are inside the military installations where PAF aircraft are parked. In short, the subject matter on this sabotage aspect will focus on the practices done by PAF Crews, Ground personnel and security detailing. Having part of the C130 Crew many times before, aircraft security is no longer the concern of the pilots and crew because this task is already a mandate of the respective Tactical Operation’s Group (TOG) of the Philippine Air Force. Based on my experience, pilot and some crew automatically deplane after engine shutdown and immediately proceed to the base operations for heavy meals or light refreshment prepared by the TOG Unit or some other sort of stuffs like flight instructions and coordination. Processing of passengers is outside pilots’ task for as long as cargo loading and weight limit is in order. But if the volume of passengers and cargoes are now beyond the calculated flight safety minima, the pilots will now intervene and calls for the shot. Essentially, there is no problem with this set up. The security problem arises in between along the processing of cargoes and passengers because more often than not, “Care Of” baggage especially those of the Generals are being loaded without strict security scrutiny. This age-old “Care Of” practice of sending goods and “pasalubong” to ranking military Officers without physical security check made the aircraft vulnerable to sabotage. How can we correlate 4593 fatal accident to sabotage? The answer is thru the “sonar images” provided by USS Lincoln, the human body parts recovered and some aircraft parts. Firstly, sonar images showed that C130 4593 lay “intact” underneath in Davao Gulf except for the huge hole-type bust of the fuselage. This bust implies that explosion happened on flight. The only problem is on what type of explosion was there. If it was caused by lightning, it is very improbable because according to seasoned C130 pilots lightning can only damage a fist-size hole at the most. Even if the lightning struck in one of the aircraft’s fuel tanks located at the Wings, the damage could have been severe because fuel-triggered explosion can somehow destroy the entire aircraft causing it to detach into pieces. But as the “Sonar Images” has shown, there was no manifestation of fuel triggered explosion from the C130 Wings. Therefore, lightning strike is absolutely out of the issue.
Secondly, if C130 4593 was experiencing mechanical malfunction that caused it to crash in water, the impact of crash landing (flat–wise) will logically wrecked the entire aircraft; thereby separating all major aircraft parts instead of a huge bust of the fuselage. Thirdly, the human body parts especially the boots with feet and the detached face mask with hair showed signs of “burn”. Meaning these body parts are telling signs to the investigators that bomb explosion was most likely the cause of accident. According to a high ranking ‘Bomb Expert’ military Officer, the face mask going to the hair of any person who is directly hit by bomb will be detached due to the impact of explosion. The human trunk including legs and feet will be cut into pieces. With this scientifically proven revelation of noted ‘bomb expert’, there is a big probability that the said C130 aircraft was sabotaged. But since there is no physical evidence to corroborate this theory, sabotage angle can always be ruled out inconclusively. So to make a long story short, there is only one possible crash angle that can provide a more realistic conclusion on the cause of that fatal accident – MAINTENANCE RECORDS & PRACTICES!
MAINTENANCE RECORDINGS AND PRACTICES
C130 4593 is the first product of business wheeling & dealing at a questionable PDM Facility at Clarkfield, Pampanga. As explained in the “C130 Article”, this facility is “not completely” capable of performing PDM undertaking because it does not have the labor expertise to perform maintenance work that is why seasoned Maintenance Personnel of 220th Airlift Wing are being called to do the odd jobs with pay. Aircraft records will show that there are parts especially the “flight control cables” are supposedly due for replacement but were not removed for reason that it passes to the “NDI Testing” or an Xray examination. This NDI examination is being done only to detect cracks but it doesn’t guarantee sturdiness of material. For the information of everybody, all aircraft parts have a calculated lifespan relative to its material safety strength. For example, if maintenance bulletin says that an aircraft flight control cables have to be replaced upon logging in an accumulated flying time of 3600 hours or has reached 6 years of intermittent flying even if it logs less than 3600 hours flying time, that particular “Flight Control Cable” must be removed and replaced because its stress factor is no longer safe for flying. NDI Testing even if it shows no cracks on the cables is simply immaterial because material lifespan is already due for removal. Why did this happen? The answer is absolutely organizational hypocrisy that approved the contract and the political foolishness of paying back a favor to certain individual even if it was very clear right from the start that the safety standard of maintenance work is already questionable. Now that C130 4593 has crashed mysteriously in the bodies of water, resurfacing it will obviously boomerang to the organization’s unethical if not corrupt undertaking then why resurface it after all? Anyway, the Pilots and crew who were actually victims of corrupt practices were already given heroes burial with handsome financial benefits. The issue here is not about the pilots and crew if they deserve to be called heroes because they are actually heroes. The issue is about knowing the true cause of the accident so that a repeat of that accident will be prevented. It is really worrisome for the hardworking and honest pilots like MAJOR NOEL M DAGOHOY to fly again the remaining aircraft if he doesn’t know what system he has to pay more attention so he can safely bring the aircraft back to the landing field if similar trouble will happen. Months have passed since C130 4593 crashed last August 25 2008, why there are no concrete investigation reports yet on the cause of that accident? Is the delay implies that the leadership is already aware of the true cause of that fatal accident and is just buying time so that the public can forget the event? Is the delay likewise imply that a cover up is being cooked so that the true reason of accident will not be published in public for fear of institutional backlash from the Filipino people and nation loving senators?
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