Perturbed in Palawan

On April 10, Tuesday, I arrived in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, on Cebu Pacific flight 637 at 9:50 in the morning, 20 minutes behind schedule. That the flight was not too delayed was a good sign, I said to myself, since I had been on several Cebu Pacific flights that were delayed for hours. I still had time to spare before my plenary speech on “Digital Literacy” at the National Schools Press Conference of the Department of Education (DepEd) at Holy Trinity University.

After the speech, lunch, and a little rest, I was taken back to the airport to await my Cebu Pacific flight 640, scheduled to leave at 5:35 p.m. The flight was delayed, of course, but since I could do some work on the Web through my cellphone, I did not mind having to wait an extra hour in the small and overcrowded airport terminal.

At around 6:15 p.m., we boarded our plane, fastened our seatbelts, straightened our seats, and looked forward to being back in Manila.

Our plane was parked between two aircraft, an Airphil Express on its left and a Zestair on its right. All three planes were parked close to each other facing the terminal. Both Airphil 948 and Zestair 421 were also preparing for take-off.

We started moving at 6:30 p.m. Instead of having the plane towed backwards, the pilot decided to make a U-turn in front of the Zestair plane. Suddenly, there was a very loud bump.

Nobody knew what had happened, not even the stewards, who stood up and milled around the front of the plane.

After what seemed like hours (but was really just a few minutes), the pilot came out of the cockpit and went to the middle of the plane and looked out the window! Then he went to the front of the plane, picked up the phone that connected to the public address system, and said, “We hit a plane.” Then he returned to the cockpit.

After what seemed even longer than hours (and was really several minutes), the pilot announced, “We have to disembark.”

Calmly, we all disembarked, carrying our bags. When we returned to the terminal, nobody told us what had happened or what we could expect for the rest of the evening.

We could see from the terminal, however, what had happened. Our plane had sideswiped the Zestair plane. Our right wing had hit the other plane’s right wing. The two wingtips had been damaged.

Fortunately for us, we had seatbelts on. No one appeared to be injured. The Zestair passengers were not so lucky. They were still loading their bags on the overhead compartments. Some were still on the passenger boarding stairs. None of them, however, must have had injuries serious enough to require an ambulance, because no ambulance came.

Media came. Soon, the news was on national television. Because no one was seriously hurt, however, it was not big news, except to us on the planes.

On hindsight, I can think of several things that went wrong.

First, the Puerto Princesa airport is not ready to service the thousands of visitors that have been attracted by the Seven Wonders victory. You cannot have three planes parked in a tight space and leaving at the same time. The tarmac is much too small for huge planes.

Second, we should have been asked to disembark immediately after the bump. Although the possibility of fire was remote, it was still a possibility, because the wingtips of airplanes have electrical wires that could have short circuited.

Third, the stewards should have been trained for emergencies. Instead of (at the very least) telling passengers not to be alarmed, they kept talking among themselves.

Fourth, the pilot should not have come out of the cockpit and looked out a window! He gave the impression that he did not know exactly what happened. How can you trust a pilot who cannot see out of a cockpit?

Fifth, the pilot himself made the situation seem worse than it was. He said that we had hit another airplane. Since we had all seen airplane disaster movies, that was not exactly a reassuring thing to say.

Sixth, the ground crew should have warned the pilot about the impending collision. After all, they were guiding the plane.

Finally, the airport controller should not have allowed our plane to take off. We should have been asked to wait for Zestair, which was in the process of boarding anyway and had no obstacle on its right.

At around 8 p.m., Cebu Pacific finally broke its silence and announced that a rescue aircraft was going to come before midnight. Since I was sure that the plane was going to be late as usual, I decided to stay the night in Puerto Princesa. Fortunately, my DepEd friends were there to find me a hotel room and to book me on the Airphil Express flight leaving the next day.

Oh, since I am a hypochondriac, I had my neck checked in case of whiplash, and my orthopedic surgeon Mario Ver said I was okay.

THANK YOU: For being extra helpful to me that eventful evening, I wish to thank DepEd’s Marivic Absede, Elmer Lalo, and Sol Reyes, as well as Kagawad Rael Fuertes and friends Victor Rey Fumar and Rakki Sison-Buban.