Once more: Wanted a 2nd runway for Mactan!

More than 15 years ago, when I was still a Director at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), I always insisted that the Mactan Cebu International Airport should start planning for a second runway because when one aircraft gets stalled along the runway, it blocks the whole airport operations. That's exactly what happened last Sunday evening when a Cebu Pacific Airbus 320 Flt. No. 5J 971 landed at the Davao International Airport and veered off the runway. Three days later, the Airbus 320 is still in the middle of the runway blocking airport operations.

Yesterday, I woke up late in the morning and turned on my TV set to watch ANC with Karen Davila with her guests, Cebu Pacific spokesperson Candice Iyog and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Deputy General Director Capt. John Andrews talking about the clearing operations at the Davao City airport.

Again, thanks to the Philippine style of having single runways and not having a machine to remove an aircraft blocking the runway. Mind you, not many people know that we do have such a machine in Mactan. Thankfully it was never used. However, I'm scared that when the time comes, our MCIAA personnel might not be able to deploy it properly because of lack of training. These are rubberized mats that would be placed under the belly of an aircraft. Air is pumped into it so that the aircraft can be lifted up.Metal plates are then placed under so the stuck plane can be pushed away from the soft ground.

So in the best interest of airport operations, the most effective way is to build a second runway especially in our international airports. Mind you, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is a cross runway, which means even if an aircraft gets stuck in the middle both runways won't be operational. This is why the best runway in this country is still the Clark International Airport which has a dual runway system.

Having a single runway is exactly the reason why when Hong Kong was still a Crown Colony, they moved away from Kai Tak International Airport. The move to Chep Lap Kok International may have been an expensive proposition for Hong Kong as they built not only a new airport, but it included a new motorway and a railway to connect it to Hong Kong and Kowloon. The rest is history… Hong Kong's tourism industry boomed because its tourism industry is no longer limited to the number of planes that land in its single runway system. 

Anyway, back to the Cebu Pacific incident in Davao, CAAP Deputy General Directors Gen. Rodante Joya (Ret.) and Capt. Andrews suggested that this was a case of pilot error. Here we go again. Why are CAAP officials preempting any investigating reports on this case? Sure, it could very well be pilot error, but there are many other factors that may have forced the aircraft to land at the wrong side of the runway.

For all we know, at the precise moment during touchdown, a sudden gust of wind may have blown the aircraft off course, which is why it did not land in the middle of the runway, but along the side. For CAAP officials to make this kind of conclusion on live TV speaks of lack of professionalism on the part of CAAP. Mind you, during the crash of DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo, they were still looking for the plane when CAAP officials were already saying that the cause of the crash was pilot error.

Listening to Cebu Pacific Air CEO Lance Gokongwei over ABS-CBN last Monday explain why the cabin crew did not make a full emergency exit evacuation was due to the fact that the plane's nose was buried deep in the ground and the tail was on a higher than usual position, and therefore only the forward door was open for passengers to exit.

That Cebu Pacific has taken a long time to have the plane removed from the runway is due to the fact that this plane can still be fixed and returned to service once, its engines are replaced. It would have taken a bulldozer less than 30 minutes to remove the plane if it was a total wreck. But this plane can still fly. So we can't blame Cebu Pacific for doing this.

What is happening in our aviation industry is somehow quite similar to what goes on in land transportation whenever there is an accident…no matter how small, the motorists involved in an accident would block the entire road and cause a humongous traffic, even if the accident was only a P100 dent. In the US, if your car gets stalled on the Golden Gate Bridge, their traffic police will push your vehicle into the sea!

Mind you, we changed this during my time with CITOM by allowing enforcers with a chalk to draw the exact positions of the vehicles so they can be moved immediately. Unfortunately the problem is, CITOM enforcers never made use of this, which is why accidents still cause massive traffic.

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