Oh no – not again Cebu Pacific!

A Cebu Pacific Airbus A319-100, registration RP-C3197 performing flight 5J-448 from Iloilo to Manila with 95 passengers, landed on Manila’s runway 24 at about 16:12 (PST) in heavy rain but temporarily veered off the runway destroying 5 runway lights before coming to a stop on the runway. The aircraft subsequently taxied to the apron, where the passengers disembarked normally.

Coincidence?

11 days after the Davao runway excursion again a Cebu Pacific Airbus ran off the runway. This time in Manila. The Manila incident had been less severe, but brings up a lot of questions about civil aviation in the Philippines and especially about Cebu Pacific Air.

The comments in the “Aviation Herald” speak their own language:
– … Aaaand again
– I think runway excursion and overrun happens often in Philippines …
– Really another one …. These guys don’t do very well on wet runways …
– Obviously, the Filipinos need longer and wider runways for their airbuses, and the Germans
need to learn how to cook without sending the flight attendants to the hospital … 

Photo courtesy of Juan Carlos Tingson

The rain in Manila had been extremely heavy. The photo above shows the  flooded Dela Rosa Street in Brgy. Pio del Pilar, Makati City yesterday afternoon. Heavy downpour inundated many parts of Metro Manila leaving commuters stranded amid heavy traffic.