NAIA-bound passengers upset after being diverted to Clark

Thousands of passengers whose flights were supposed to land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila on Friday were diverted to the Clark International Airport in Pampanga due to the runway closure caused by a disabled Xiamen Airlines plane.

According to Ivan Mayrina's report on "24 Oras," some of over 4,000 people on board 24 diverted flights expressed displeasure over their disrupted schedules.

Eric Stevens, who flew to the Philippines for the first time on a 16-hour Philippine Airlines flight from Canada, said he had to stay in the plane for 24 hours.

"For a 16-hour flight, we were on the tarmac for another six hours after that. So 24 hours on a plane is quite a long time to be sitting there. It was rough," Stevens said.

Passengers had to wait hours for their luggage as the airport did not have the facilities to remove the luggage from the large plane.

"So why did they put us here in the first place?" Julian Belanger asked.

"I still have to go back in Manila and then to go to La Union so there's another seven hours. So you can say I'm not very happy," he added.

Clark airport officials said it should have been the airline's responsibility to resolve the matter of unloading the luggage. 

"Kami, sumasalo lang naman kami sa kanila. Naiintindihan nila so on-call po kami. Kanina pa kaming hatinggabi," CIA president and CEO Alex Cauguiran.

Xiamen Airlines flight MF8667, a Boeing B737 type aircraft, landed at NAIA’s runway 24 at 11:55 p.m. Thursday night but overshot the runway after landing.

As of Friday evening, the Manila International Airport Authority extended the closure of NAIA's Runway 06/24 until 5 a.m. on Saturday.

Aside from the inconvenienced foreigners, the incident also left several Filipino passengers feeling so close yet so far.

"Gusto ko nang lumuwas. Nasa Pilipinas na kami pero ang layo ko pa rin," a passenger said.

"Maraming kasama sa ano, may negosyo, may mga kuwan, natigil ang mga reunion, mga business meetings, everything. For one airplane? Why?" said another. —Margaret Claire Layug/NB, GMA News