MANILA - Eight people were killed when an ambulance plane caught fire as it was taxiing on a runway at Manila's main airport on Sunday evening (March 29).
A flight manifest showed the plane was carrying an ailing Canadian and his American companion, three pilots, a doctor, a nurse and a flight medic. All died. The incident happened at around 8pm.
The plane, operated by local charter service Lionair, was headed to Tokyo, in Japan.
Photos posted on social media showed a ball of fire blazing from the middle of the fuselage, and then the entire plane ablaze.
"This is currently being investigated. We can't confirm or speculate. There were no survivors," Mr Eddie Monreal, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority, told reporters.
It was not immediately announced why the patient was being evacuated by air to Tokyo, or if he tested positive for the coronavirus.
"There was no indication right now. There was no confirmation or denial (by the operator) about the situation of the passenger," said Mr Monreal.
But Captain Don Mendoza, deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, did confirm that the plane was being used to ferry medical supplies and protective gear to health workers outside Manila trying to slow the spread of the virus.
"It was in Iloilo (province) yesterday (March 28). It ferried medical supplies, then went back to Manila safely," he said.
Capt Mendoza said air traffic controllers were already alarmed when they noticed that the aircraft failed to take off when it had more than enough runway.
"With the size of the aircraft and the length of the runway, they were expecting the aircraft to already be airborne. When it failed to take off, they quickly alerted the firetrucks and rescue (workers)," he said.
Capt Mendoza said the same operator, Lionair, owned another plane that crashed in September last year (2019) as it was also transporting a patient.
Nine people died in that incident: two pilots, a doctor, three nurses, the patient and his wife, and a flight medic. The patient was from New Zealand.
The 2019 plane crash was at a resort 60km south of Manila, where it was headed from Zamboanga del Norte province.
Capt Mendoza said Lionair's fleet of planes and helicopters would be grounded.
"It's quite alarming. But we're looking into the records deeply. Definitely, we'll have a thorough investigation," he said.
The airport in Manila has been closed to nearly all commercial flights since the Philippine government put the northern third of the country on lockdown to contain the virus outbreak.
