Pilot safely lands plane despite damaged landing gear

An airline pilot was able to land late on Wednesday afternoon a Palawan-bound plane despite a damaged landing gear, delivering some 150 passengers to safety.

Capt. Joel Vinarao, the pilot of a Cebu Pacific Airbus 320 flight 5J639 from Manila, radioed in to the tower of the Puerto Princesa International Airport the information that there was a hole on the nose landing gear of his aircraft.

Even then, according to Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap), Vinarao was able to land his plane safely at 5:12 p.m. on Wednesday.

Caap spokesperson Eric Apolonio said the damage to the aircraft’s landing gear had been caused by what aviators called foreign object debris (FOD) that the plane most likely run over during takeoff from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) or during the initial landing at the Puerto Princesa International Airport.

He said as a result of the damage, the plane was grounded for repairs.

Likewise, Apolonio pointed out, runway sweeps were immediately conducted in both the Naia and Palawan airport.

But the CAAP spokesperson said both sweeps yielded no debris or were declared negative for FOD.

The aircraft was cleared, after the completion of maintenance work, for a return flight to Manila at around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. SM