Davao Airport halts operations for 2nd day

DAVAO CITY-- Operations of this city's international gateway remain halted Tuesday morning as authorities are yet to figure out how to remove the failing aircraft in the runway.

Frederick San Felix, airport area manager at the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), said the retrieval team failed to meet its extended self-imposed deadline of 7 a.m. to remove the Cebu Pacific plane.

On Sunday night, flight 5J-971 overshot the Davao airport runway amid thunderstorms during its landing. All 166 passengers, including four crew and two pilots, were safe.

"We again extended (the time for the removal of the aircraft) to 3 p.m.," San Felix told The STAR in his office.

"We already moved it a little bit. But then the plane started falling off the steel plate we placed underneath," he said.

"We will have to lift it up again," he added.

As a result, 11 flights already re-booked from as earliest as Sunday night were again cancelled by the airlines Tuesday morning.

The original deadline for the plane's removal was on Monday, 8 p.m. This was moved to 7 a.m. today before this latest development.

"The operations ended 3:30 a.m. last night and as of now they are yet to resume. The team is still sleeping," San Felix said.

As disgruntled passengers begin to lose patience, Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines have continued shuttling people to General Santos City, where additional flights to Manila were put up to accommodate those who were stranded.

San Felix said on Monday that "more than 3,000" passengers may have been stranded as a result of the incident two days ago.

Cebu Pacific and PAL have yet to release figures on how many have availed of the optional re-routing to General Santos, three hours from this city.

In contrast though, Yao-led Zest Air came under fire from passengers questioning why the budget carrier has not provided any assistance.

Zest Air frontline personnel were swamped with queries ranging from why there was no meal or board and lodging provided to why can't flights be re-routed to General Santos.

A personnel, who asked not to be named, said the airline decided not to provide any assistance as "they do not own the aircraft that failed."

Zest Air flights to and from General Santos will also not start until June 15.

The STAR is still trying to contact Zest Air officials as of this posting.