More than 3,000 passengers stranded at Davao airport

DAVAO CITY-- More than 3,000 passengers are stranded on Monday at the Davao City International Airport which has been shut down, following the skidding of an aircraft late Sunday. Frederick San Felix, airport area manager at the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), said "normal" operations are expected to resume by 8 p.m. after the aircraft is removed from the side of the runway. On Sunday, Cebu Pacific flight 5J-971 missed the runway upon landing in Davao City, 7:05 p.m. All 166 passengers, including four crew and two pilots, were accounted for. As a result, more than 80 flights in and out of the city have been stopped, San Felix said. Those flights transport "more than 3,000 passengers" daily. "We have to wait for the investigators. I don't want to speculate as to what caused the accident," San Felix told reporters in a briefing. The aircraft, an Airbus 320 which was part of the airline's latest re-fleeting, undergo examination by a team from CAAP Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board, which arrived at noon. The team, San Felix said, will be accompanied by members of the Gokongwei-led budget carrier from Manila. "This will be a long process depending on the progress of the investigation," he said. He said probers will also retrieve the contents of the aircraft's blackbox, a sort of memory device that contains the plane's communication. Airlines, on the other hand, are "compelled" to give "maximum assistance" to stranded passengers. "So far, we have not received any complaints regarding the airlines," San Felix said. In a statement, Cebu Pacific said a total of 20 roundtrip flights to and from Davao were cancelled since last night. These consist of 11 Manila-Davao-Manila flights, four Cebu-Davao-Cebu, while the rest were from and to Iloilo, Butuan, Dipolog, Zamboanga and Cagayan de Oro. "I can assure you that Cebu Pacific is trying to address all the needs of the passengers," Michelle Fojas, corporate communications manager, told reporters. These, she said, included "standard compensation," hotel accommodations and meals, as well as "re-accommodation" to next available flight in General Santos City. As of 7 a.m. on Monday, Cebu Pacific has arranged 16 extra roundtrip flights from Manila, Iloilo, Zamboanga and Cebu to General Santos, where most stranded passengers were transferred. For its part, Zest Air management, in a text message to passengers, said all cancelled flights will be accommodated "tomorrow or two days from now." Philippine Airlines, meanwhile, said it has upgraded to a wide-bodied aircraft for its General Santos- manila flight this afternoon at 4 p.m. to accommodate passengers from Davao who are willing to be re-routed to General Santos. Though normal operations are targeted to resume by 8 p.m., San Felix said "it will be up to the airlines" whether to resume flying tonight or not. The CAAP estimated about P2-million worth of losses as a result of the incident. San Felix, meanwhile, assured travellers of the safety of local airplanes. "All the aircraft that are being registered with the CAAP are air worthy," he said.