‘Sweeper plane’ to fly stranded foreign tourists out of Bicol

LEGAZPI CITY — A Philippine Airlines (PAL) special “repatriation-sweeper” plane would be arriving on Tuesday noon at the Legazpi Domestic Airport to fetch foreign tourists, mostly Americans, that were stranded in Bicol following the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Erwin Montas, PAL Legazpi branch manager, said the PAL plane they call “Sweeper Plane” was a special flight that was commissioned by the United States embassy to pick up 52 foreign nationals, 40 of which were US citizens and dependents while the rest were German and Korean nationals, that were stranded when the Luzon-wide border lockdown were declared in March.

Montas in a phone interview said the plane, an 86-seater PAL Q400 New Generation passenger aircraft (PR4921), was expected to arrive at the Legazpi airport at around 1:55 p.m from Manila. At 2:30 p.m., it would depart for Manila bringing along the stranded foreign tourists.

Montas said the special flight was an arrangement made by the US embassies after receiving reports that a number of their citizens who were on tour were stuck in Bicol provinces due to the lockdown.

Montas said at least 12 local passengers from Manila were booked at the special plane flight to arrive on Tuesday.

“We expect more local passengers would avail of this special flight offered by PAL to return home while other locals would be accommodated during its return flight back to Manila on Tuesday,” he added.

Montas said PAL would accept local passengers on condition that they follow the Inter-Agency Task Force travel and health protocols, which include travel pass and medical certificate signed by government physicians.

He said the 40 US citizens upon arrival at 3:55 p.m. at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) will take connecting flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco, USA at around 9 p.m.

While the other foreign nationals upon arrival at the NAIA would have to present their outbound plane tickets and hotel accommodations.

Earlier, a PAL special sweeper plane flight was also commissioned on April to unload medical cargo supplies and fetch several Canadian and Australian tourist stranded in Bicol.

JPV