Ateneo to Cebu Pacific: 'You do not deserve our patronage'

MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) announced on Monday that it will boycott Cebu Pacific Airlines over its staff's "insensitivity" and "ineptness" in handling Sunday night's skidding incident.

Jesuit priest and ADDU president Joel Tabora said that he has ordered university employees and students to stop taking  Cebu Pacific flights "in protest" of the airlines' personnel neglect of its passengers after the plane overshot its runway landing.

"The Ateneo de Davao University has been a loyal customer of Cebu-Pacific for many, many years. Last night you proved you do not deserve our patronage," Tabora said, terminating the institution's account with the second flag carrier.

Tabora recounted that Cebu Pacific's staff failed to offer "human assistance" to panicking passengers during the irregular landing of Flight 5J971, when fire and smoke broke into the cabin from the engine before it halted on the runway.

"No instructions were given; no calming words spoken. Instead a pilot of another airline undertook to calm the passengers," Tabora said.

He added that the passengers were trapped in the smoke-filled aircraft chamber for 27 minutes before they alighted via emergency slides.

"Twenty-seven minutes, however, without appropriate communications is entirely too long! What if the engine had exploded? What if someone choked due to the smoke?" Tabora complained in the letter issued to the university.

Tabora also said the call to boycott  the airline was owing to "manifest human failure" and not mechanical failure.

"You personnel lack training for an emergency situation. They froze. They did not know what to do. They must be able to put the welfare of the passengers before their own. And they must be trained to do so," Tabora, head of the university of about 14,000 students, said.

Tabora also resorted to social media to express his disappointment  for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport-based airline.

About 3,000 passengers to and from Davao were stranded on Monday as Davao International Airport awaited investigation for the accident. The damaged aircraft is also yet to be towed off the runway.