By HENRY EMPEÑO | July 6, 2021

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Strong tailwinds encountered by a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight over the Subic Bay Freeport prevented the landing here on Monday of the first batch of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) arriving under a government program to bring home workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma, quoting a report from PAL, said the tailwind, or wind blowing from behind the aircraft, “was not within limits.”

Instead, Flight PR5683 which was scheduled for landing at the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) at 10:43 a.m. on Monday, landed at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark Freeport, Eisma said.

The diverted flight was the first of the six PAL arrivals expected at the SBIA this month under a government program to ferry home mostly overseas workers.

PAL Flight PR5683, which originated from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, carried 309 returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), two seamen, and one Returning Overseas Filipino (ROF).

Eisma said, however, that despite the flight diversion, its passengers will have the obligatory quarantine at accredited hotels and accommodation establishments in the Subic Bay Freeport.

The SBMA last week the schedule of PAL flights to Subic to be on July 5, 7, 15, 17, 25, and 27. Each PAL Airbus A330 flight will have an average of 230 passengers, mostly OFWs from Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

The arrival of OFWs via Subic is in line with the policy of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to impose a limit for all international airports in the country to accommodate just 1,500 passengers per day. Accordingly, PAL has distributed its flights to various airports in the country. ~