Tourist plane skids off runway at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines - A plane carrying 32 people from Caticlan skidded off the runway after landing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) yesterday, officials said.

The Seair plane was hit by crosswinds as it came in to land but no one was hurt in the incident, airport official Harold Balucatin said.

Seair president Avelino Zapanta said that about 12:30 p.m. yesterday, one of its Dornier 328 planes “landed normally and was taxiing to terminal when it encountered cross windshear that caused the aircraft to veer off the runway.”

He added that no passengers were hurt, and they were “all off the terminal” within an hour after the incident.

Zapanta stressed that the plane was not damaged, but another report said the plane suffered damage to its landing gear.

Asked about what caused the skid, Captain Aldwin Sabana, who piloted the plane, said they were “not hit by the crosswinds, because if we had been hit by crosswinds, we would have veered to the other side” of the runway.

“I was surprised how it happened,” he added.

The plane got stuck in the grass at the right side of the runway, which was closed for an hour while repair crews tried to move the plane, officials said.

The plane was returning from Caticlan, the town that serves the resort island of Boracay, airport officials said.

Neither airport nor airline officials were able to say if there were any foreign tourists aboard the plane.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines director general Ruben Ciron ordered aircraft accident investigators to determine the cause of the accident.