Air Crashes Revisited- Remembering Fallen Colleagues

Air Crashes Revisited. Remembering Fallen Colleagues

Does this happen to anyone else? I mean burying something into the deepest recesses of one’s memory banks and not wanting to access it for some dreadful reason? That’s my experience with the several airplane crashes I was directly associated with some 40 or so years ago

One ex PAL colleague now residing in the US recently commented that many of us do have memories of our days at PAL, especially at that time in the past when working for an airline meant having a glamorous and exciting life.

This exchange of emails with him opened a floodgate of memories that I had long suppressed. One such memory was of a crash that took place in September of 1969. One of our “PALJETS”, a BAC One-Eleven that took off from Cebu had crashed amid bad weather in Antipolo, a suburb of Manila. Only one person survived, a steward surnamed Madrid; the rest perished, including the famous actor –turned- politician, Mat Ranillo. I rushed to Mactan airport – a challenge at that time because we had to use a WWII barge to cross the channel. My mission was to get the facts and notify the media. And most important of all, speak with the next of kin, many of whom had also gone to the airport. Hearing the wails, beholding the gush of tears from helpless parents, spouses, children and other next of kin was a gut wrenching ordeal. As the only public relations employee in the southern Philippines I was the face of an airline that had caused the death of many – I was totally helpless, unable to alleviate the suffering and agony of what had now swelled into a sobbing and angry mob. Somehow I survived. I worked thru the night. As the dawn broke and streaks of sunlight pierced the morning fog I walked out to the ramp to take a deep breath. In a couple of hours our first flight from Manila would land and with it a team of PAL personnel who were professionally trained to address the needs of next of kin of crash victims. I could now go home. But the memory of those tearful faces and the cries and the sobs of helplessness stayed with me a long time.

I also recalled another crash. This time on the island of Mactan itself. It was an F27 Fokker Friendship. This was on February 28, 1967. I was not in pr yet but was the station agent on duty at about 7 p.m. when we were told that a plane from Manila had crashed before it hit the runway and in a part of the compound controlled by the US military ( Mactan was an active resupply base for the US effort in Vietnam). There was only 1 survivor, a priest from one of the Catholic run colleges. When I saw the passenger list, scanning thru to see who else was on board, a cold, chilling wave swept over me. Many of those who perished were pilots, co-pilots, stewardesses and our own flight surgeon.. They were Mactan based pilots who had gone to Manila to visit family and had to get back to Mactan that night so they could fly outbound planes the next day. I can no longer recall the names of the young men and women laid out at the morgue. These were colleagues that I and many of my coworkers had dealt and interacted with on a daily basis. Their faces and bodies, dead and mangled, have stayed with me. Young lives snuffed out at their prime. They were fathers, and sons, and husbands, and brothers, and sisters who were no more.

The crash that hit very close to home was the one in Malaybalay, Bukidnon on April 27,1967. It was an F28 “Fellowship” test flight. Fokker was in competition with the AVRO HS748 and was trying to convince PAL to buy their airplane instead. I was supposed to be on that flight. Captain Pete Mallari, chief pilot and regional manager wanted me to arrange a media meeting in Davao, the test flight’s final airport that day. As luck would have it, I was not feeling too well that day and had gone home sick earlier.

I heard of the crash later that evening and dragged myself to the nearest PAL office to get the details. None were available at that time. Later, a source very close to the investigation offered this information : “ Captain Joe Sacro was at the controls and eye witnesses said the aircraft was on full power, although not moving, which signified that he tried a static takeoff because of the short runway. A Malaybalay fire truck came and doused the plane with water, thus spreading fire. People claimed they heard shouting inside the cabin, but they could not open the door because it was stuck and the heat from the fire was intolerable”

Two days later I was in Mactan receiving the coffins from Malaybalay. Aside from Captain Mallari, were several colleagues who were close to us all. There was Captain Tom Gallego a check pilot who wanted to help evaluate the plane. There was my friend the tall and beautiful Margot Perfecto, a chief flight attendant, who I had known from my high school days in Cebu. There were Vicente “Titong” Gador and Joe Jueco, colleagues I worked with at the PAL counters.

They were all on the flight at the invitation of Captain Mallari because he wanted to get as many diversified opinions as possible on the plane’s capabilities and characteristics. As I heard it Captain Gallego and Margot had just come off a flight from Manila and were summoned to the F28 that was just about to rev up for take-off. In fact Captain Gallego reportedly was running from one plane to another. He had literally run to his death.

There are many experiences one shares when working for an airline. There are some that one would rather forget. But these are seared in our memories. This painful phenomenon of knowing and working with friends and colleagues one day, and then burying them the next is made more intense perhaps by the realization that it may well have been us in those coffins, on the corral reefs at Mactan or in that ravine in Malaybalay. These are memories that far outweigh whatever glamour or glory there may have been while working at PAL. It reminds us that life is precious and that our friendships and connections are a valuable gift and that these can, sometimes savagely, be so swiftly taken from us. I thank my ex-colleague who triggered these remembrances. He has reminded me to be appreciative of the many years I’ve had so far; many of our friends were not so fortunate.
N.B. My thanks to ex-PAL public relations colleague Romeo F.C. Farol for factual corrections that helped complete the information herein. “Rome” was the departmental liaison to flight operations and cabin services and knew well many of the crews that manned PAL’s international and domestic flights.