The Nepalese student pilot of the ill-fated Piper Seneca RPC 4431 that carried former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to his death after it crashed in the sea off Masbate may have died even before the aircraft crashed, a report on the incident obtained by Daily Tribune said.

The pilot miscalculated the runway and maneuvered the plane too late and they went past the runway

Student pilot Khshitiz Chand died because of cardio-respiratory failure due to a “severe head blunt trauma” and had indications he might had been dead before the plane crashed, killing Robredo and Capt. Jessup Bahinting, the chief pilot, the report added.

According to the final report submitted by a five-man Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) probe team, Chand died of cardio-respiratory arrest due to “severe blunt trauma while Robredo and Bahinting died of cardio-respiratory arrest due to drowning.”

The report did not expound on the cause of the injury to the student pilot, but Coast Guard divers reported that the Nepalese student was seated on the pilot’s seat, while Bahinting was strapped to the co-pilot’s seat.

The aide of Robredo, Senior Insp. Jun Abrasado, who was able to get out of the plane before it sank to the seabed, was silent on what could have caused the fatal injury on Chand.

Abrasado recounted to investigators that 23 minutes after the aircraft was airborne, Bahinting informed them of engine trouble and said, “ Our propeller may not make it to Naga.

Abrasado narrated the plane then was still flying normally despite running on a single engine.

He then sent a short message service (SMS) or text message to a member of their group about the engine problem and requested an airline booking for Robredo and himself for the first available flight to Manila.

“Later, he (Abrasado) sensed the plane changed direction and at the same time noticed an orange indicator at the instrument panel, initially blinking slowly and later increasing frequency until he heard a noise and saw the right-hand propeller stopped at the same time the orange indicator steadily lit,” the report said.

When Abrasado asked if they were returning to Cebu, he was told by the captain they were proceeding to Masbate. The captain, he said, attempted but failed to restart the dead engine three times.

He narrated the plane remained flying smoothly despite losing the right engine, but several minutes later, Abrasado noticed the plane was descending to a critical level, prompting him to send an SMS to a member of Robredo’s team that they will be making an emergency landing in Masbate.

“Suddenly, he saw the plane slowly veering to the left for a final approach to the runway, but it seemed to him that the pilot miscalculated the runway and maneuvered the plane too late and they went past the runway.”

“Then Abrasado looked at the pilot and saw the latter turn his head and glanced to the rear over his right shoulder and remembered seeing the pilot’s face turn red and his eyes bulging.

The airplane then lurched upward followed by a swift vertical nosedive,” the report said.

A CAAP investigator said turning the plane to the right when the engine was dead was a fatal error of the pilot.

“A cardinal rule among pilots is never to turn the plane towards the direction of a dead engine,” he said.

The report noted the absence of a pre-flight briefing. It said the student pilot, who was not qualified to fly the Piper Seneca, occupied the chief pilot’s seat.

Considering that the flight was for a “VIP,” it would have been better if the Indian flight instructor was taken on board instead of the Nepalese student pilot, according to the report.

The report also questioned the decision of the pilot to continue the flight 23 minutes after he sensed a “propeller problem.”

“If the flight returned to Mactan, it would have landed safely with still two engines, as the loss of the right engine was after 38 minutes of flight after the initial propeller problem was noted.”

The engine went out when the plane was 33.7 kilometers (km) from Masbate airport and it took 17 minutes flight on a single left engine before the aircraft crashed 800 meters from the end of the runway.

“The last and fatal decision made was making a right turn toward the dead engine. The aircraft manual says that if a turn is made towards a dead engine, the aircraft will pitch up about 15 degrees followed by a stall towards the dead engine,” the report added.

“Altitude is the insurance against stalls or spins; without it, recovery is impossible.”