‘Special envoy’ offloaded

An “unruly” Filipino passenger, identified by airport insiders as one of the country’s special envoys, was offloaded Monday from a Hong Kong-bound Cathay Pacific flight.

In an air safety and hazard report filed with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), Cathay Pacific did not name the male passenger of CX flight 900, but some Ninoy Aquino International Airport employees said he was “also an official of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.”

The Cathay Pacific flight was supposed to leave the Naia’s Terminal 1 at 12:30 p.m. The incident delayed the plane’s departure for about an hour.

In its report to the CAAP, the airline disclosed the “unruly passenger would not obey any commands from the cabin crew’s verbal warning… Warning given but to no avail… (Plane) returned to bay to offload passenger.”

According to Cathay Pacific, the passenger “was repeatedly asked to fasten his seatbelt but he refused. During the taxi back to the Terminal 1 bay, he climbed the stairs to the upper deck (of the Boeing 747) to gain entry to the cockpit. He was prevented from doing so by the cabin crew.”

The passenger was brought to the CAAP office, located near Naia Terminal 1, where he was briefly interrogated and released.   Jerry E. Esplanada