The Philippine Air Force (PAF) will send to the United States the recovered flight data recorder of an FA-50 fighter jet that crashed in Bukidnon last week.
PAF spokesperson Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo said the Air Force’s investigating team who went to the crash site on Mt. Kalatungan has already secured the area and will continue their investigation at Basa Air Base in Floridablanca, Pampanga.
“As to the updates regarding the flight data recorder, it will be sent to the United States for extraction of the voice and data details, and then the details will be transmitted to the original equipment manufacturer in South Korea. This will help in the investigation of this mishap,” she said on Tuesday, March 11.
Aviation experts from the US will try to extract the flight data of the FA-50 fighter jet with tail number “002” including the altitude, airspeed, and flight path or direction of the aircraft to determine what caused the crash.
Castillo assured the public that the investigation on the crash will be “thorough and extensive”, and the extraction of the data is expected to take several days.
“Right now, we don't have a timeline for it, but the soonest we can have it done, so that we can get at the bottom of it, of what happened, then we're going to carry it out as soon as we can,” she noted.
Further, the PAF has also safely detonated unexploded ordnance and ammunition left on the crashed jet, which were supposed to be used in an operation against New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Bukidnon, as well as “parts” of the aircraft “to clear the area of whatever remnants there that are not necessary.”
“Whatever remains of the aircraft that are not necessary at the same time, whatever unexploded ordnance that could pose risk to the community, then this has undergone a controlled detonation for the safety of everyone,” Castillo explained.
The FA-50 fighter jet crashed on Mt. Kalatungan on March 4 while on tactical night operations in Bukidnon. The crash killed two pilots, Major Jude Salang-Oy and First Lieutenant April John Dadulla, of the 5th Fighter Wing.