Poe on NAIA air traffic mess probe

To be clear, no one is above accountability for the NAIA fiasco. Whether past or present administration, we will make sure they face the consequences.

Evidently, the glitch and the systems failure were caused by the inaction and lack of foresight of CAAP leadership and the consequent lack of support from Department of Transportation at the time the compulsory back up systems were requested. CAAP, as the one ultimately in-charge, should have known better.

I won't allow CAAP to get away with just a slap on the wrist. However, I also need to consider and ensure its day-to-day operations are not crippled due to the investigations.

Because of the pandemic and the lack of prioritization by both CAAP and DOTr, we still had no functional back-up when the incident occurred last January.

These are only a few of numerous factors that could have spelled a different outcome. Congress never even had the chance to act on any request because none was ever raised. Ultimately, all of these are judgement calls of the past heads of both DoTr and CAAP for which they must answer.

There is still accountability to be exacted but to focus only on such would make this into another political circus that is counterproductive to our air safety efforts. To turn this solely into a witch hunt would further drive away the decreasing number of technical air personnel that chose to stay in the country to serve.

Accountability follows, and definitely, not cast aside.