Armed Forces chief General Cirilito Sobejana said the black box of the C-130 Hercules plane that crashed in Sulu on Sunday would be sent to the US to help in the investigation.
“Hawak na nila (mga imbestigador ang black box) subalit wala tayong kakayahan locally na buksan at tingnan kung ano ‘yung nilalaman. Ipapadala natin ito sa Amerika,” Sobejana said in an interview on GMA News’ Unang Balita.
(The investigators already have the black box. However, we do not have the capability locally to open it and see what is inside. So we will send it to America.)
“Nakausap na rin natin ‘yung counterpart. Sila naman ay nag-commit na kung matatanggap na nila ay bubuksan nila kaagad upang basahin kung ano ang nilalaman nito at ipasa kaagad sa atin para makatulong nang malaki sa pag-imbestiga kung ano ang sanhi ng pagbagsak ng C-130,” he added.
(We talked to our counterpart [in the US]. They committed that once they receive the black box, they will immediately open it to read what is inside and send us the information right away to help us greatly in the investigation into the C-130 crash.)
Also read: Families of the victims of C-130 Hercules crash mourn
AFP to send Air Force C-130 Hercules black box to US – Sobejana
All 96 soldiers aboard the ill-fated military plane are accounted for. Fifty military personnel and 3 civilians were killed.
Meanwhile, 46 servicemen and four civilians were injured.
Sobejana earlier said the conversations in the cockpit could be retrieved from the black box. “Malalaman natin kung ano yung magiging conversation doon sa cockpit.” (We will know what the conversations were inside the cockpit.)
Meanwhile, the Philippine Air Force denied that the C-130 Hercules plane was overloaded.
“The said C-130 was not overloaded. It was well within the operational limits and capacity when it left Laguindingan Airport with 96 passengers compared to its maximum capacity of 120 passengers; this is contrary to the circulating rumor that the aircraft was overloaded,” Philippine Air Force (PAF) spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Maynard Mariano said in a statement.
Visit our Facebook page for more news updates.