Chinese passengers “hostage” two pilots

CEBU, Philippines - A group of angry Chinese tourists held hostage two pilots inside a Cebu Pacific Airplane early morning of Saturday at the Kalibo International Airport.

Some 179 tourists allegedly ganged up on Captain Johnny Tintoy and co-pilot Richard Avila and prevented the two from going out of the plane. Tintoy and Avila allegedly suffered hematoma and bruises because of the incident.

According to reports of RGMA-Kalibo, the passengers of flight 5J-474 threw a fit after the two pilots decided to turn back the plane to Kalibo International Airport due to bad weather.

The supposed three-hour flight left Kalibo in Aklan for Shanghai, China midnight of  Saturday. The aborted flight arrived Kalibo at around 1 a.m.

Avila managed to sneak away from the angry tourists while Tintoy was rounded up until he was released at around 3 a.m.

The Chinese passengers allegedly prevented the security guards, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines personnel, and airport police from going near them. Cebu Pacific Air personnel also failed to pacify them.

What aggravated the negotiations was that most of the Chinese were not well-versed in the English language. Later, a Chinese interpreter was called in and the airline and the angry passengers agreed to release Tintoy, after they were promised of a hotel accommodation until their scheduled flight around 4 p.m. yesterday.

Airport police and CAAP later called the Kalibo Police Station for assistance but the matter was already settled when the policemen arrived.

Reports had it that the Chinese passengers got angry after knowing that the airline was not obliged to offer them meals and accommodations if the reason of the flight cancellation was due to force majeure.

The local police and even Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores were belatedly informed of the incident. The governor, in a telephone interview, did not contain his disappointment about the incident. “Whether it was resolved or not, those concerned should have informed me about any incident that could affect the tourism of the province,” he said.

As of yesterday afternoon, Miraflores said he was yet to receive a copy of the incident report from the Cebu Pacific Air manager in Kalibo. “I don’t know yet the specifics about what happened because I only have a sketchy report from the CAAP,” he added.