An AirAsia airliner has overshot the runway at
an airport in the Philippines forcing
passengers to make an urgent exit on
emergency slides, it has been claimed.
The incident occured at Kalibo Airport in
Aklan province and involved an Airbus
A320-216 carrying 153 passengers and crew
from the Filipino capital Manila.
Local journalist Jet Damazo-Santos was on
board the plane and uploaded photographs to
Twitter showing chaotic scenes as
passengers were forced to disembark the
aircraft on emergency slides.
'Engine was shut immediately, we were told
to leave bags, deplane asap. Firetruck was
waiting,' she said, adding that there appeared
to be no injuries despite the plane coming to
an 'abrupt stop'.
The incident comes just hours after 40 bodies
and wreckage were recovered from the sea off
the Indonesian coast of Borneo Island
following the disappearance of Air Asia
flight 8501 on Sunday.
Describing the terrifying incident, Ms
Damazo-Santos said: 'Nobody seems to be
hurt. Weather was bad because of #senangph
[sic]. Plane came to a very abrupt stop.'
Her mention of bad weather refers to tropical
storm Seniang, which has been battering the
Philippines for several days.
She updated her Twitter account with a
number of photographs taken in the
aftermath of the incident, including images of
elderly patients having their blood pressure
checked and shoeless members of cabin
standing on the runway, having removed their
footwear to use the inflatable slide.
Ms Damazo-Santos said that her flight had
been delayed by two hours after the poor
weather at Kalibo Airport had earlier forced a
plane from Cebu Pacific airlines to turn back
to Manila.
With all passengers said to be safe, Ms
Damazo-Santos said they now face a long
wait to reclaim their luggage as officials
insist the plane is towed to a parking area
before it can be unloaded.
The journalist later wrote about her
experience for the Filipino news website
Rappler.
In a statement AirAsia said: 'AirAsia
Philippines confirms flight Z2 272 from
Manila skidded off the Kalibo International
Airport runway at 5:43PM upon landing. All
153 passengers and crew were able to
disembark safely, no injuries reported.'
'All passengers are now at a hotel assisted
by AirAsia staff,' they added.
The incident comes just hours after 40 bodies
were recovered from the Java Sea following
the disappearance of AirAsia flight 8501 on
Sunday. 162 people were on board the flight
when it disappeared from radars 42 minutes
into its flight from Surabaya in Indonesia to
Singapore.
Poor weather has been suggested a likely
factor in that crash after it emerged the pilot
requested to deviate from its flight plan and
climb above bad weather.
By the time permission to do so was granted,
the plane had already vanished from radars.
Officials have confirmed that bodies and
debris found in Java Sea off Indonesia are
from AirAsia flight 8501, and a naval
spokesman said the rescuers remain 'very
busy' retrieving the victims.
Scores of bodies were discovered alongside
luggage, a plane door and an emergency
slide floating in the water 100 miles off the
coast of Borneo Island earlier today after
three days of searching.
The recovery of 40 bodies came as
devastated relatives of AirAsia crash victims
collapsed in grief and were taken to hospital
after an Indonesian television station showed
disturbing uncensored footage of the swollen
corpses floating in the sea.
Images shown on a news channel showed at
least one body floating in the water, causing
the victims' relatives - who were watching live
reports at crisis-centre at Juanda
International Airport in Surabaya - to burst
into tears, with some fainting and requiring
hospital treatment.
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