Such disruptions, by the way, are considered 'normal' by experts, from the point of view of operating airports. It can happen to any airport anywhere anytime. And they know too, that accidents like those can cause a mind-boggling 'domino effect' of disruptions in air travel. OMG! So, is it really normal?
Well, it obviously is/was not normal - at least for us the riding public who are not at the airport daily. For aviation authorities, experts or employees, when they say "normal" - they actually want to say "it happens" or "it can happen" to/at any airport.
In any case, like it already did since midnight, that accident is going to wreak havoc at our country's premier airport for days (hopefully not weeks)! Will it, really? Yes, it will, since airliners have their set schedules at airports - if any of them breaches their time allocations/allotments, it will affect others.
In this case, becasuse that Xiamen Air plane hugged the runway with some trouble, for safety reasons, all other planes were not yet allowed to land or take-off at their designated schedules. Ayun, sunod-sunod nang delay yan... domino effect na... and it could take time (hopefully just days).
Is some government agency not doing its job again? Well, it'll be easy for us to say yes, especially that we don't know technical circumstances of how airports and aviation authorities operate. But for me, I think all of them are now busy trying to rectify things. We're all impatient, so it's easier to just blame!
Hindi ganun kadali yan!
The most important thing for us to do now is: avoid being in that havoc, and/or avoid contributing to the chaos that will ensue - actually it already started as of early this morning! How do we avoid that?
If you are not flying within this week, shut-up and pray for the early resolution of that mess. If you do have a flight that is departing and/or landing at NAIA (any of the 4 terminals) within this week, better start looking for "other better options"! You will most probably be affected. Tanggapin mo na hahaha!
And the earlier you react, the better. Don't wait for anything. Do something now. You will be affected!
What are the options?
It depends on who you are, what you do, where you are now, where you are going to, and why.
Here are examples:
- I told a cousin, kesa tumunganga ka dyan just watching the news, call the airline now and have your flight changed to CRK-CEB (Clark-Cebu) instead of MNL-CEB (Manila-Cebu).
- same thing I said to a friend flying to Singapore tomorrow: depart from Clark, do the change now.
- as for another friend who is now in HKG coming to MNL on Monday, I told her to fly into Clark. Why? Because, I expect flights to/from Manila will be affected! Yes, masalimuot at medyo magtatagal yan!
My analogy here is: parang me nag-landslide sa highway, hindi ganun kadali ayusin yan.
And for those who are not knowledgeable about runways and departure times, Manila (MNL) has two runways namely Runway 06/24 (where the mishap happened, near Terminal 1) and Runway 13/31 (the one that runs from old domestic airport towards Merville Village). Kaso, kulang yan sa dami ng flights!
You may say "the Xiamen Air plane should not take that long to resolve, plus there's an extra runway". Yes, that's true. But, how many flights have already been delayed and how many more will be bumped by the domino effect? At the very least, this may take three days to a week of nauseating disruptions.
So don't be caught in them!
Yes, this is one of those days when we say... hay buhay!
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