3 flights unable to land at Zamboanga airport

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Three inbound domestic flights were unable to land at the Zamboanga City Airport yesterday morning after five on-duty air traffic controllers failed to report for work on time to man their respective posts.

Zamboanga City Airport manager Celso Bayabos said the five air traffic controllers arrived almost an hour late, after the first Cebu Pacific flight from Cebu flew into the city’s airspace shortly after 6:00 a.m. ready for landing.

The Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Manila came in next and was followed by another Cebu Pacific flight from Manila.

The three planes hovered above this city for nearly 40 minutes, forcing their respective pilots to decide among themselves who would land first since nobody was there to guide them.

Some of the passengers said they started to feel apprehensive after the plane crew made no announcement of their landing despite reaching the city’s vicinity.

Bayabos said that since the Cebu Pacific plane from Cebu came ahead of the others, it made its descent first, followed by the two other planes.

The flight from Cebu was carrying 46 passengers, the PAL plane from Manila had 156 passengers, and the second Cebu Pacific flight was carrying about the same number of passengers from Manila.

“The air traffic controllers need to face investigation and administrative sanction because they put the lives of the passengers in danger,” Bayabos said, adding the flights of the three aircraft arrived ahead of their expected time of arrival (ETA). 

He said investigations will be conducted and recommendations made to the Civil Aviation Authority in Manila to sanction the erring air traffic controllers.