The Department of Transportation has ordered the investigation of a fainting passenger and panic aboard a Cebu Pacific flight to Cebu on Friday.
The DOTr instructed the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to look into the incident after a a Facebook post containing a video and photos of the flight went viral, the agency said in a statement issued on Saturday morning.
“Should DOTr-CAB find out that Cebu Pacific Flight 5J 575 went beyond the prescribed 2-hour period to deplane its passengers due to long tarmac delays, Cebu Pacific shall be held liable for the penalty prescribed under the regulation,”the DOTr added.
Passenger Gin Durano posted a video that showed passengers complaining about the heat inside the cabin and asking the flight crew to let them deplane.
“Babies are crying, old people are complaining and there’s a woman got suffocated and now she has oxygen on because she can’t breathe. We’ve been here for more than an hour inside the plane,” Durano said in her Facebook post.
Cebu Pacific released a statement that the flight was delayed because of debris on the runway.
The passengers were transferred to another aircraft after the crew had been alerted of the warm cabin temperature, the airline added.
The flight departed Manila at 7:32 p.m. and landed in Cebu at 8:52 p.m.
Photo Credit: Gin Durano, Facebook account
