A Qantas flight from Australia to the Philippines has been forced to turn around just days after a Jetstar flight from Australia to Bali was forced to return before landing.
Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). in the Philippines suffered a power outage that the air traffic control system. As a result, more than 360 flights to or from the airport were canceled or delayed. Qantas flight QF19 from Sydney to Manila was one of those affected and was forced to turn around and return to NSW three hours after its departure.
“All airlines were prevented from arriving into Manila on Sunday afternoon as local authorities closed the local airspace,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
“This meant our flight from Sydney had to turn around.”
Manilla airport has since issued a statement explaining what happened, and reassuring passengers that the problem has been rectified.
“At around 9.40am local time, the Air Traffic Management Centre (ATMC) which serves as the facility for controlling and overseeing all inbound and outbound flights and overflights within the Philippine airspace, went down due to power outage, resulting to loss of communication, radio, radar, and internet,” Airport transportation secretary Jaime J. Bautista said in an online press conference.
Just last week, a Jetstar flight headed to Bali was forced to turn around because the airline didn’t fill out the correct paperwork.
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“We swapped yesterday’s Melbourne to Bali service to a larger Boeing 787 aircraft to carry more customers during the holidays,” a Jetstar spokesman said at the time.
“Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication, the aircraft swap was not approved by the local regulator in Indonesia. As soon as we became aware, the flight returned to Melbourne, and we have rebooked passengers on a flight later today.
“We know this has been an extremely frustrating experience for customers and sincerely apologise for what happened.”
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