MASBATE CITY, Philippines—Senior Inspector June Paolo Abrazado, the
only survivor of the plane crash that killed Interior Secretary Jesse
Robredo on Saturday, said the face of Captain Jessup Bahinting, pilot of
the plane, turned very red seconds before the aircraft nosed up and
nosed down again and hit the water.
In a three-page testimony provided to the Inquirer by a highly placed
source, Abrazado vividly recounted the last few minutes in the life of
the multi-awarded former Naga City mayor.
Abrazado narrated the events leading to the crash to a Malacañang
staffer on August 19, a day after their airplane went down at around
4:30 p.m. of Saturday.
The document did not provide the exact time of the events but said
only that before the plane crashed, the pilot was looking for the runway
of the Masbate Airport to make an emergency landing. The plane, which
lost the right engine, was flying very low.
“There’s the runway! There’s the runway!” Abrazado quoted Bahinting as exclaiming when they approached the airport.
Runway missed
But they missed the runway as the plane glided to the left and headed
to the residential area of Barangay (village) Ibingay, Abrazado said.
Bahinting, according to Abrazado, seemed to have intentionally
avoided crashing right into Ibingay, one of the most populous sections
of Masbate City.
After the plane glided to the right, sparing the village, it went out
of control, wobbled, nosed up and nosed down, and hit the water, making
a very strong impact, said Abrazado.
“My initial reaction was to hug Secretary Robredo,” he said.
The impact knocked them unconscious. “The sound of the crash was
indescribable. I can’t explain it. But it was like the explosion of a
bomb,” he said.
“When I regained consciousness, seawater was already rushing into the
plane and the right side of the plane looked disintegrated,” he said.
“But the door of the plane remained locked by a latch. There was a
(piece of) wood that looked to have pierced the glass pane of the plane.
And the water kept rushing in” he added.
He said he could not find Secretary Robredo.
Rattled and losing mind
“We were seated beside each other. I did not
know if it was me or he who got displaced. I just reached for my
seatbelt because seawater was flooding the inside of the plane. I saw
light coming in and I tried to surface. I did not know which part of the
plane the light was peeping in. I was rattled. I was losing my mind. I
tried many times to unfasten my seatbelt but it seemed I could not even
move my hands. When I unbuckled it, I squeezed out myself from the
plane. I was able to drink seawater mixed with gasoline so that I became
dizzy.”
When he was able to surface, he saw the plane
bobbing up, with only its tail above the water. The tail, he said, was
perpendicular to the surface.
“Then I could not move my hands again. I was
still wearing my shoes and pants. I said to myself that I would die
because I could not even move my arms. I assumed that my arms were
broken,” he said.
Then he saw his bag floating. “I summoned all
the physical strength I could have to reach for the bag. My face was
aching. My body was failing me. I grabbed the bag and it kept me
floating long enough for a fisherman to rescue me,” he added.
He said he began shouting and calling for help while the bag was also slowly sinking.
“When I was rescued by a fisherman, I looked
back at the plane. I saw no one from the plane was following me. I could
only see what looked like debris,” he said.
He said he told the fisherman to rush him to
the Masbate Police Office. But the fisherman told him that a rescue team
was waiting.
Abrazado’s nose was bleeding by then.
Sensing problems
“While we were still up in the air, the display panel that also displayed directional map kept on flashing: ‘aviation expires 18 or November 28 2010.’ I can see from the panel a distance notification that said 20 to 26 miles. I don’t know what the expiration message meant. I wanted to inform Secretary about it but I did not want him to worry. I just made Secretary laugh by saying that there were many cases when a plane was flying with only one engine functioning,” he said.
He said while in the air, they were looking for the runway of the Masbate Airport in agony. “We were relieved when we saw the runway. Then when we were about to relax, the problem got in,” he said.
He said the plane began to swoop nose down when the pilot glided it to the right. Ït was then when he lost control.
“I wondered why the pilot chose to land in Masbate when he said we were returning to Cebu. In fact, I was able to reserve plane ticket from Cebu to Manila.
He said that when they took off from Cebu, Robredo was rushing to go home “because Naga airport would not allow a plane to land if they left Cebu at 2 p.m. We would be diverted to Legazpi City.”
“Secretary was able to talk to the one in charge with the tower of Naga airport and had a go signal,” he said.
“But we still took off at 3 p.m.”
Plane looking old
He said he noticed that the plane looked old but he said the pilot assured them that the plane was in good condition.
“I noticed that the co-pilot looked like a trainee and of different nationality,” he said.
After we took off from Cebu and while we were in the air, the display panel suddenly blinked and displayed: “check engine.”
“The pilot told us that there’s a problem and they could not proceed to Naga. Then Secretary Robredo told the pilot to just return to Cebu.”
“Then I felt the plane turn and I started coordinating with our staff in Cebu and asked them to book a Cebu-Manila ticket.
“Secretary Robredo was at ease that they were returning to Cebu but we noticed that the flight was taking longer than expected,” he said.
Then, he said, the right engine suddenly shut down and he and Secretary Robredo got worried.
But the plane was running well, he said, although the two pilots were trying to restart the engine that malfunctioned. The co-pilot even had a very relaxed demeanor when he turned to them at the back, he said.
“Then we asked the pilot if we were nearing Cebu and we were informed that we would be making an emergency landing in Masbate airport instead,” Abrazado said.
Then we approved and I tried to coordinate with Legazpi staff to provide a chopper for us since Secretary had an urgent engagement in Naga.
“While I was doing that, the plane was flying very close to the surface of the sea and I thought the plane was just making a final approach to the runway. I said to myself, we can survive this. I said even when the plane makes a water landing, I can manage to take out and save my boss,” he said.
But he was not able to do that.
