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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Monday, October 16, 2017
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ILOILO City – The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) hopes to reopen the Iloilo International Airport by 5 a.m. today, over 48 hours after a Cebu Pacific plane overshot the runway late Friday night.
According to CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio yesterday around 5 p.m., they found it difficult to remove the aircraft.
“Kung pipilitin namin baka masira ang runway kasi masyadong malambot ang steel plate kung saan naroon ang eroplano,” said Apolonio.
Cebu Pacific Flight 5J 461, an Airbus A320, hit a grassy area of the airport and got stuck there while taxing the runway around 11:15 p.m. on Friday.
“Nag-o-overtime ang ating mga tao sa area para maibalik ang mga flights,” said Apolonio.
All the 180 passengers and airplane crew were unhurt but many were shaken.
“Humihingi kami ng pag-uunawa ng mga pasahero dahil sa delay,” said Apolonio.
The flight left the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila at 10 p.m. Friday.
After the runway overshooting, other flights to Iloilo were immediately diverted to the airports in Kalibo, Aklan; Roxas City in Capiz; and Bacolod City in Negros Occidental.
Yesterday, six domestic flights were cancelled. These were as follows:
- 5J 451/452 Manila-Iloilo-Manila
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5J 453/454 Manila-Iloilo-Manila
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5J 457/458 Manila-Iloilo-Manila
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5J 468 Iloilo-Manila
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5J 348/347 Davao-Iloilo-Davao
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DG 6408/6409 Cebu-Iloilo-Cebu.
Cebu Pacific spokesperson Charo Logarda Lagamon told CNN Philippines yesterday they were hoping to remove the plane by 7 p.m. Sunday.
“Removal efforts are ongoing,” she said. “However, as seen from the video and seen from images posted, weather has not been favorable and this is, of course, causing some delay with regards to removing the aircraft from the runway.”
In a “Notice to Airmen”, CAAP said it was “doing its best to extract the aircraft so that flights will be normalized soon.”
Ensuring passengers safety and security is paramount in maintaining airports and skies safe for travel, it stressed. (With a report from CNN Philippines/PN)
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