LeBron grounded by jet malfunction

MANILA, Philippines - The flight to China of NBA superstar LeBron James was delayed for an hour and a half after the warning light came on at the cockpit panel of his Gulf Stream executive jet while preparing for takeoff from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) yesterday morning.

Christopher Salonga, assistant general manager of Ages Aviation, told The STAR that the private jet returned to their hangar where the plane was checked to make sure that the aircraft is safe to fly.

Salonga said James and company were scheduled to depart around 8:45 a.m. for Guangzhou, China when the pilot noticed that the aircraft warning light was on in the cockpit panel while the plane was taxiing at NAIA runway 06.

Salonga said that the ground crew at the hangar of the Ages Aviation inside NAIA conducted a maintenance check.

“It is better to know the situation of the aircraft while on the ground,” the pilot told Salonga.

Salonga said that the pilot decided first to shut down the jet engine for a few minutes and then restart it to check if the warning light would appear again.

Luckily the warning light was gone, indicating that it was just a minor computer glitch, so the Miami Heat star and his group boarded the plane and took off at around 10:15 a.m.

James arrived for the first time in Manila last Monday and held a basketball clinic and an exhibition game at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City as part of his Witness History tour sponsored by Nike.