The Philippine Air Force (PAF) announced Thursday it has recovered the “black box” or flight data recorder of the FA-50PH jet fighter with tail number 002, which crashed Tuesday in the mountains of Bukidnon.
Air Force spokesperson Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo confirmed this during an interview with reporters, stating that the device will be sent to experts for analysis. “What we are going to find there are the usual flight data, the altitude, the airspeed, all the other things,” she added.
Castillo said this device can also tell the flight path taken by the aircraft prior to its crash. The “black box” is expected to provide investigators with valuable information on the issues or challenges the pilots faced during the flight.
Following the discovery of the missing aircraft’s wreckage in the vicinity of the Mount Kalatungan complex in Bukidnon on March 5, the PAF promptly grounded all 11 remaining FA-50PH jet fighters in its fleet.
The aircraft, which had been reported missing on March 4, was scheduled to participate in a “tactical night” operation under the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Eastern Mindanao Command. It had taken off from the Benito N. Ebuen Air Base in Mactan, Cebu along with other members of its flight.
As of now, the PAF has not disclosed the exact cause of the mishap, marking the first incident involving the FA-50PHs since their acquisition between 2015 and 2017.
The PAF procured 12 FA-50PH jet fighters from South Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries at a cost of P18.9 billion.
