Plane crash lands at Manila airport!

A commercial plane carrying 45 passengers has crash-landed at Manila airport, according to rescue officials.
The plane, operated by Asian Spirit airline sustained “major damage” in the incident, Air Transportation Office (ATO) chief Adelberto Yap said.

But there were no injuries among the passengers and crew, Mr Yap added.

The four-engine turboprop plane was on a domestic flight and most of the passengers were South Korean tourists.

Circling airport

The plane had been travelling to the island resort of Boracay, but it returned to Manila when its landing gear failed to open as it prepared to land at Caticlan airfield near the resort, Mr Yap said.

Local media reported that the plane circled Manila airport for more than an hour as it tried to get its landing gear to open.

Flight 897 then “landed with one landing gear extended out” an ATO report said, “and swerved out to the grassy portion”.

One of the air stewardesses on board told AFP that the control tower “ordered us to come in when we were down to 30 minutes of fuel” and that it had been a “nerve-wracking” experience for all of the passengers.

Twenty incoming planes were held up by air traffic controllers while the plane made what Mr Yap described as a “belly-land”.

Traffic to the airport is expected to resume once the wreckage has been removed from the site, Mr Yap said.
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link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2238495.stm