Plane crashlands at NAIA, no injuries

An Asian Spirit aircraft with 45 passengers and four crew members, mostly South Korean holidaymakers off to Boracay, crash-landed last night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) three hours after take off.

No one was hurt, but the belly of the 50-seater De Havilland-7 was wrecked due to the forced landing at 6:51 p.m.

Two Americans and several Filipinos were also on board the plane.

The four-engine turbo-prop took off at the Manila Domestic Airport at 3:36 p.m. for Caticlan, Aklan.

Capt. Carlos Kintanar said the aborted landing of Asian Spirit Flight 6K897 in Caticlan was caused by the failure of the right rear wheels to disengage from their hold, prompting them to return to Manila for an emergency landing.

The control tower held up oncoming early evening traffic involving 20 foreign carriers while the stricken plane "made a belly land at runway 2-4 and skidded into the grass" on one side of the runway, Air Transportation Office chief Adelberto Yap said.

The plane circled for about 35 minutes over Las Piñas to consume fuel in order to prevent an explosion during the belly landing.

Operations at the Manila Domestic Airport and the NAIA were suspended for 15 minutes. – Rey Arquiza, AFP