Iloilo runway incident is Cebu Pacific’s 4th since 2013
THE CIVIL Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said that it will be investigating the incident on Friday involving a Cebu Pacific (Cebu Air, Inc.) aircraft, which veered off the Iloilo International Airport runway.
“The team has to finish gathering data from the airport,” CAAP Spokesperson Eric B. Apolonio said in a phone interview.
The Iloilo airport, located in Cabatuan town about 20 kilometers away from Iloilo City and is considered the main gateway in the Western Visayas region, was closed over the weekend.
CAAP ordered the airport’s closure late Friday evening after the Cebu Pacific A320 aircraft carrying 180 passengers from Manila figured in a “runway excursion,” an incident where an aircraft veers off or overruns the runway.
It was the 4th such incident involving a Cebu Pacific plane since 2013. The others were in Davao City on June 3, 2013; Butuan City, Feb. 15, 2014; and most recently, in Cebu last Aug. 4.
Mr. Apolonio said the investigation “might take months,” like with other investigations of aircraft incidents in the country. The investigation will require listening to the conversations inside the aircraft as recorded in the flight recorder or black box. Black box recordings are sent to Singapore for verification.
While there is no conclusive assessment so far, CAAP has noted the weather conditions during the flight, Mr. Apolonio said.
“Runway incidents in Iloilo are very minimal such as bird strike. Weather played a big factor for this incident,” said Mr. Apolonio.
The CAAP spokesperson also explained that the clearing operation took longer than expected as additional air lifting equipment needed to be transported from the airport in Roxas City, Capiz.
CAAP initially announced that the Iloilo airport could be open by Saturday but later moved it to Sunday evening.
“Because the equipment that are already in place cannot be moved without the help of additional air lifting equipment,” he said, noting that the portion where the plane ended up had soft soil and they did not want to damage the runway in the process of extracting the vessel.
“As much as they wanted to expedite everything, safety of the runway is a major concern,” he said. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo and Louine Hope U. Conserve
