LATE Thursday night, a Xiamen Airlines flight arriving from China in heavy weather conditions skidded off the main runway upon landing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident, but the disabled aircraft forced the closure of the runway, immediately throwing the country’s primary international gateway into utter chaos.
By Saturday morning, more than a hundred flights had been cancelled, while a number of international flights bound for Manila were diverted to Cebu and Clark. The bad weather hampered removal of the damaged jet and kept the runway out of service until late Saturday noon, stranding thousands of passengers at the airport and creating flight delays all across the Philippines.
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