CLAIM: A supposed pilot claimed in a now-deleted Facebook post that Vice President Leni Robredo caused flight diversions at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport “last month,” presumably in April.
In the post, the pilot claimed that Robredo, at the height of campaign season, asked for priority landing that forced flights to divert. He also mentioned that Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airlines flights were among those affected by the sudden diversion.
He further claimed that the incident belies Robredo’s public projection of modesty and simplicity.
Rating
The claim that Robredo caused the diversion of multiple flights is false.
Facts
According to routes available on FlightRadar24, Singapore Airlines flights to NAIA would come from Changi Airport in Singapore via four flight numbers, namely SQ910, SQ912, SQ916 and SQ918.
This is similarly true for Qatar Airways, whose flights come directly from Doha Hamad International Airport via three flight numbers QR928, QR932 and QR934.
No flight diversions have been recorded at Manila’s airport for both Singapore Airlines flights and Qatar Airways to Manila throughout April.
There were two recorded diversions to Clark Airport, however, on March 8 and 17 for Singapore Airlines.
The flight diversions on March 8 earlier this year were well-documented, having been caused by a runway excursion, or the veering off the runway, of a Cebu Pacific aircraft at NAIA at around noontime. The aircraft was towed in less than 2 hours around midday.
Moreover, requests for traffic priority landing of a VIP do not necessarily cause flight diversions, as shown in the Federal Aviation Administration’s policies.
A supposed “aviation professional” additionally explains in a tweet that given prior priority landing requests, air traffic controllers would request affected flights to perform a few “holding patterns prior to starting final approach and land” without having to necessarily divert.
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