Radar System
Larry Peña, supervisor of DMIA’s Operations Control Center, told GMANews.TV in a phone interview that the Clark airport started receiving diverted flights a little past 3 p.m. because of “poor visibility (in Manila) due to the bad weather."
According to Peña, the 18 flights included six from Cebu Pacific, four Philippine Airlines (PAL), two from SEAIR, and one each from Zest Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, PAL Orient and Emirates.
The said flights started going back to Manila past 8 p.m., Peña said.
The diverted planes landed and left for Manila “without any problems," he added.
The DMIA covers over 2,300 hectares of the Clark Freeport Zone.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) director general Alfonso Cusi said in a separate phone interview that the diversion of flights was a “normal procedure" and not because of any technical glitch.
“The visibility in NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) was very bad, so the pilots decided to divert their planes to Clark," Cusi said.
On June 19, at least 50 domestic and international flights were cancelled after NAIA’s Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Radio Range (VOR), a device that directs aircrafts to the runway especially when there is poor visibility, broke down.
Cusi, however, explained the flight diversions may happen even with a fully functional VOR or radar system. He explained that visibility at NAIA was recorded to be at 0.5 miles only during the downpour, when the ideal visibility should be at least 3 miles depending on the plane’s altitude.
He added flights bound for other neighboring Asian countries such as Hong Kong and Taiwan were diverted to Manila in the past in cases of very low visibility.
“This is normal, and we just have to be aware of the procedures," Cusi said.
Passengers who were able to send updates through the social networking site Facebook earlier complained of being stuck inside their respective aircraft with no food, and that they were not advised of what was supposed to happen.
Cusi said passengers of diverted flights are normally not allowed to disembark, so the planes may be ready for take-off as soon as the weather clears. - KBK
