Chinese tourists hold 2 pilots hostage

MANILA, Philippines - Nearly 200 angry Chinese tourists reportedly held hostage two pilots on a Cebu Pacific plane early Saturday morning at the Kalibo International Airport (KIA).

This came after the pilots decided to abort their flight to Shanghai due to bad weather in the Chinese city.

The plane left Kalibo, Aklan Friday night and arrived back at the airport before midnight.

According to reports of RGMA-Kalibo, 179 passengers of Flight 5J074 allegedly ganged up on Capt. Johnny Tinto and co-pilot Richard Avila and prevented them from going out of the plane.

Tinto and Avila allegedly suffered hematoma and bruises because of the incident.

But the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and Cebu Pacific denied any hostage-taking or violent incident.

RGMA-Kalibo reported that Avila managed to sneak away from the angry tourists while Tinto was released only at 3 a.m.

The Chinese passengers allegedly prevented security guards, CAAP personnel and airport police from getting near them.

Cebu Pacific Air personnel also reportedly failed to pacify them.

RGMA-Kalibo said airport police and CAAP personnel later called the Kalibo police station for assistance but the matter had been settled by the time the police arrived.

A Chinese interpreter was reportedly called and the angry passengers agreed to release Tinto after they were promised hotel accommodation until their scheduled flight yesterday.

No violence, hostage-taking

The officer-in-charge of the CAAP in Kalibo, Cynthia Aspera, said the Shanghai-bound flight departed the KIA as scheduled at 4:45 p.m. Friday but was diverted to Manila at 7:48 p.m. due to poor visibility in China.

As part of the standard operating procedure where cancelled flights should return to the point of origin, Aspera said the Cebu Pacific aircraft departed Manila at 11:12 p.m. and arrived at the KIA at 11:59 p.m.

Aspera said passengers of the aircraft stayed at the international airport until 3 a.m.

However, she reported that passengers of the aircraft surrounded and blocked the path of the two pilots, who were reportedly from another flight, and prevented them from entering the terminal building, demanding free hotel accommodation.

In her report, Aspera said a Chinese identified as Xue Weilang with passport No. E32262606 was brought to the PNP/AvseGroup office for questioning for being arrogant and disrespectful to the pilot.

However, she added that the parties reached an agreement and the pilots of Cebu Pacific did not file any formal complaint.

Lawyer Jorenz Tañada, vice president for corporate affairs of Cebu Pacific, said the airline is also looking into the matter.

“All I can say is that the pilots are safe and accounted for,” Tañada said.

The airline said yesterday afternoon that passengers of the flight would be re-accommodated on chartered CEB Flight 5J074 Kalibo-Shanghai last night.

In its Twitter account @CebuPacificAir, the budget airline denied that the pilots of the Shanghai-bound aircraft were mauled.

“This is to clarify that the pilots of Cebu Pacific charter Flight 5J074 Kalibo-Shanghai were not mauled by Chinese passengers,” the airline said.

Belatedly informed

Meanwhile, Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores expressed disappointment over the incident.

“Whether it has been resolved or not, those concerned should have informed us about any incident that could affect the tourism of the province,” Miraflores told The STAR.

As of yesterday afternoon, he said he has yet to receive a copy of the incident report from the manager of Cebu Pacific in Kalibo.

“I don’t know yet the specifics about what happened because I only have a sketchy report from the CAAP,” he said.– With Lawrence Agcaoili