By Cherry Joy Veniles, VERA Files

Davao City--A Cebu Pacific Airbus 320 flight from Manila overshot the runway of the Davao International Airport at 7:10 p.m. on June 2, leaving all 165 passengers and crew unhurt but badly shaken.

The accident raises questions on aviation emergency preparedness, and the safety of budget air travel. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) is awaiting the results of tests on the flight data recorder earlier sent to Singapore, but initial findings are that pilot error caused the accident.

Meanwhile, passengers on that flight made notes of what it was like to be caught in Flight 5J 971 after it nosedived into the grassy portion of the Davao airport.

1. Cebu Pacific’s flight crew remained silent as the plane bounced, and did nothing to calm panicked passengers.

Passenger Andrew Bautista said he and his wife, who occupied Seats 1E and F, knew something was wrong when the flight crew failed to issue the usual announcements—seatbelts fastened, seats upright and window shades raised. They were just told to prepare for landing.

“And then we were going so fast, that we hit the ground within ten seconds, there was a bump and then the lights went out and there was smoke all over,” Bautista remembers. And the next thing they knew, a flight attendant was crying.

Except for that, the crew was silent, and people began to panic. “The fact was that very little was said on the plane, perhaps out of fear or uncertainty,” said Nelson Lindsay, a New Zealander who was on his 40th trip to Davao.

Five foreigners were on board and begged the flight crew to speak in English for their sake but between the terrified screams, frantic ramblings, and the passengers’ rush to get their carry on baggage from the overhead bins, very few bothered to translate to any of the foreign passengers that day.

Passenger Marlon Bo took it upon himself to calm the passengers and ask them to remain seated as the plane might tilt and bring even more danger to everyone. In the darkness, people prayed and held on to their children and their family, others frantically texted friends and relatives fearing that no one would know what had happened should the plane burst in flames.

2. The pilot failed to calm the passengers’ fears, and may even have been among the first to deplane.

After more than 10 minutes on the ground, the cockpit doors opened and the captain, in a trembling voice, addressed the passengers, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are safe. Eight miles on our approach I was given the go signal to land. Five miles, I put the plane on autopilot, we landed on the right path, but due to heavy rains, zero visibility, the wiper is not working, we skidded off the runway. I’m sorry for what happened.”

Then he turned his back on the stunned passengers, the last time that any one of them would see or hear from him.

Because the PA system did not seem to be working, those at the back could barely hear what he said.

“I was the third to get out of the plane and the first thing I saw as soon as I reached the ground was a metal ladder in the pilot’s cockpit. I thought, did he leave us all here?” said Bautista who was later chosen president of the Flight 5J971 victims association.

Later, at the terminal, passengers demanded to speak with the pilots but the ground crew said the captain was still in shock.

3. The plane’s oxygen masks failed to materialize and flight crew hesitated to use the slide.

Only the emergency lights were on, as smoke filled the air, and no oxygen masks dropped from the overhead compartment.

“Sir, papaputukin ko na ba (Sir, should I pop it)?” a flight attendant asked the pilot tentatively, referring to the inflatable emergency slide in the forward exit. The Cebu Pacific Safety Instruction card, found in the airlines’ seat pockets specifically notes that all exits will be used on terrain and water landing but cautions that exits should not be opened in case of fire or obstructions.

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