If was a catastrophe nobody wanted to happen but on April 19, 2000, at around 7:00 a.m., an Air Philippines jet flying from Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila crashed in the Island Garden City of Samal, instantaneously killing all persons on board. The tragedy eclipsed the 1998 incident when a Cebu Pacific DC-9 jet crashed on the slopes of Mt. Sumagaya in Gingoog City, killing 104 people aboard.
Washington Post, in an account filed on the same day of the accident, reported: ‘There was no immediate indication what caused Flight 541 to crash on the mountainous island 625
miles southeast of Manila, popular for its beach and diving resorts… the plane passed a routine maintenance check before taking off from Manila for Davao and the government weather bureau said conditions were good at the time of the crash… the plane was carrying 131 people–124 passengers, including four babies, six crew members and a mechanic.’
The Boeing 737-200 aircraft with registration RP- C3010 was erstwhile owned by Southwest Airlines; it was first delivered in February 1978. At the time of
the tragedy, it was piloted by Capt. Evarisito Catipay with Capt. Don Sardalla, then 22 years old, as co- pilot.
BenCyrus G. Ellorin, reporting for MindaNews twelve years to the day the accident happened, wrote: ‘‘Flight 541 began to circle in low clouds, waiting for the plane on the ground to move off the runway. As it circled, Flight 541 slammed into the side of a mountain, 500 feet above sea level. The plane caught fire and disintegrated, killing everyone on board. ‘Witnesses heard explosions before the plane, in service for twenty-two years already, crashed at Sitio Kamanlangan, Barangay San Isidro in Babak, some five nautical miles away from the Davao International Airport.
Deemed as the first Air Philippines plane to crash, domestic air transport authorities found nothing wrong with the aircraft’s technical aspect but the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration expressed apprehension the disaster was caused by Boeing 737-200s’ rudder control system. The plane chopped off and felled coconut trees.
Recovered from the crash site were personal belongings. Though the weather was fair at the time, air traffic controllers were partly blamed for miscommunicating, thinking a Philippine Air Lines aircraft was taking off, which prompted them to advise Flight 541 to continue its approach toward Runway 05. When it was found that no plane was
taking off, the pilots of Flight 541 were advised to do a missed approach.
The last time there was radio contact with the crashed plane was at 7:01 a.m. when it was seven nautical miles on final approach to Runway 23, which, at the time, was not visible. Two minutes later, the control tower ‘went into blind transmission to guide Flight 541.’
The Chicago-based Nolan Law Group, an expert in aviation lawsuits, represented the families of victims and filed a multi-million-dollar class suit against the Chicago-based AAR Aircraft and Engine Group and Fleet Business Credit Corporation, owners of the leased aircraft. When the case was ultimately negotiated amicably in 2007, each victim’s family received $1.2 million, or a total settlement of at least US$157 million, then the equivalent of P6.6 billion. It was the biggest settlement in the country’s aviation history. The Illinois State Supreme Court was about to finish the class suite when the Lloyds of London, the insurance company, decided to settle. Central to the
case was the discovery that the pilots failed to undergo a training course made obligatory by the aircraft’s manufacturer.
Although only 56 families chose Nolan Law Group as legal counsel, the amicable settlement was applied to all victims. For its services, the law office got 33 percent of the award, or roughly $52 million, a fair amount given that the firm did not ask for advance payments.
