A Manila-bound Qantas plane was forced to turn around mid-flight and return to Sydney after an air traffic control malfunction forced Philippine authorities to shut down the country’s airspace.
Flight QF19 departed Sydney shortly before 1pm local time on New Year’s Day and was about three hours into its eight-hour journey when pilots learned they would not be able to land at the plane’s destination.
“All airlines were prevented from arriving into Manila on Sunday afternoon as local authorities closed the local airspace. This meant our flight from Sydney had to turn around,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
Having just flown over Queensland’s north coast, the Airbus A330 turned around and headed back to Sydney.
The plane then refuelled at Sydney airport and departed again at about 11.30pm on Sunday to head back to Manila after the Philippines’ airspace was reopened. The Qantas flight arrived in Manila on Monday morning.
Tens of thousands of travellers were stranded at Philippine airports due to the air traffic control malfunction, the result of a power outage which knocked out communication and radar equipment at the country’s busiest hub in Manila.
More than 360 flights were either delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports, affecting about 56,000 passengers at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino international airport (NAIA). Operations at some other airports were also affected.
Flights bound for other international destinations were also prevented from using the country’s airspace. It was unclear how many overflights were affected.
The outage hit as many people began returning to the capital for work and school after the Christmas and new year break.
Jaime Bautista, the Philippines’ transport secretary, apologised for the inconvenience to passengers.
Bautista said the air traffic management centre, which controls inbound and outbound flights, “went down” due to a power outage that resulted in the loss of communication, radio, radar and internet.
He said the outdated system should be upgraded immediately and that a backup was needed.
There are currently no airborne commercial flights in the Philippines (MANILA FIR). pic.twitter.com/xUhyPJarmE
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 1, 2023
“This is an air traffic management system issue,” he said in a media briefing. “If you will compare us with Singapore, for one, there is a big difference, they are at least 10 years ahead of us.”
There were chaotic scenes at check-in counters across the country as thousands of people tried to rebook tickets or find when their flights might take off.
Others who had boarded their aircraft before the glitch was announced waited for hours and were then disembarked.
By late Sunday, Manila airport had resumed normal services.
A Philippine Airlines flight from Brisbane was the first aircraft to land after the “glitch”, the airport said.
Video clips and photos posted on social media showed long queues at the airport and airline personnel distributing food packs and drinks to stranded passengers.
Manuel Pangilinan, the chairman of the Philippine telecommunications conglomerate PLDT, said on Twitter: “We’re told radar and navigation facilities at NAIA down. I was on my way home fm Tokyo – 3 hours into the flight, but had to return to Haneda.
“Six hours of useless flying but inconvenience to travellers and losses to tourism and business are horrendous. Only in the PH. Sigh.”
Philippine Airlines and budget carrier Cebu Pacific said they had offered passengers due to fly on Sunday free rebooking or the option to convert tickets to vouchers.
– with Reuters and AFP
