Manila-bound flight from Iloilo delayed for 6 hours

ILOILO CITY, Philippines—At least 140 passengers of a Cebu Pacific plane bound for Manila had been stranded at the Iloilo airport for more than six hours on Sunday due to technical trouble with the plane.

Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño, who was among the stranded passengers, said an angry crowd of passengers had been demanding for a new plane to bring them to Manila but the airline refused and instead sent a mechanic to fix the plane.

The plane that was supposed to leave Iloilo at 5:45 p.m. was already delayed and the passengers were only able to board the plane at 8 p.m.

But the takeoff was shortly aborted and the passengers had to deplane and return to the terminal because of an unspecified technical problem, according to Casiño.

Most of the passengers had refused to board the same plane citing safety concerns even after airline had announced that it had fix the problem. The plane had not left the Iloilo airport as of 12:02 a.m.

The passengers got angrier after the airline said the passengers can rebook their flight but could not assure them that they can be accommodated in Monday’s flight because most flights were already full due to the Dinagyang festival which ended Sunday.