Dipolog Airport closes runway after aircraft suffers glitch

Dipolog Airport temporarily closed its runway after a Cebgo flight developed “technical difficulties” upon landing on Wednesday afternoon.

In an advisory, Cebgo said its flight DG 6603, a twin-turboprop Aerospatiale ATR-42-300, was forced to offload on the runway all of its 60 passengers, who were then guided to the airport terminal.

“The pilots detected unusual vibrations from the nose landing gear of the aircraft during the landing roll out,” the advisory said.

“As a safety precaution, the aircraft stopped on the runway where all passengers were deplaned from the runway and then guided to the terminal building,” it said.

The airline said Dipolog airport was forced to close its only runway “since the aircraft cannot be moved until a maintenance team arrives onsite and further assessment is conducted.”

With the runway closure, two Cebu Pacific flights as well as a Cebgo flight scheduled to depart for Dipolog on the same day were cancelled:

• 5J 703 Manila-Dipolog
• 5J 704 Dipolog-Manila
• DG 6604 Dipolog-Cebu

Cebgo assured that additional flights would be mounted the next day, February 15, to ferry delayed passengers.

Affected passengers would also be offered accommodation, if needed, and would be informed of their new flight schedule, the airline said. /je