MANILA – The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) will help in probing the crash of a helicopter of the Philippine National Police (PNP) once the latter asks for its assistance, CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio said on Thursday.
In an interview, Apolonio said military and police officers handle the operations of their own helicopters so if accidents happen, they have their own investigation team.
He said even if an accident was caused by an erring pilot, for instance, CAAP would still be hands-off on the issue as long as the aircraft involved belongs to non-civilians.
"The only thing they coordinate with us is they file a flight plan. This is just for records purposes. A flight plan is necessary so we would know the time they would be using the air space, and aircraft collision will be avoided," he said.
Apolonio added that should the PNP ask for their assistance, it would be like CAAP's Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board would just give a second opinion.
A helicopter carrying PNP chief, Gen. Archie Gamboa and several ranking police officials crashed in San Pedro, Laguna on Thursday morning.
Gamboa and seven other passengers were safe and were taken to the nearest hospital, according to an earlier report. (PNA)
