Smoke fills Philippines-LA flight with 359 onboard; probe on: Watch video

A Philippine Airlines flight bound for Los Angeles in the United States was forced to make an emergency landing in Japan after the cabin filled with smoke midair. The flight, carrying 355 passengers and four crew members, took off from Manila International Airport at approximately 10 pm on Wednesday.

The incident occurred when one of the air conditioners in the aircraft started to release smoke. Several videos and images, that surfaced on the social media, showed passengers covering their noses due to smoke.

Following the incident, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon ordered an investigation into the emergency landing of a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight at Japan’s Haneda Airport and to probe how the air conditioning unit started emitting smoke.

Addressing a press conference, Vince Dizon said, “It’s really important, especially for our airlines — we truly need to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers, and we will have to look into what happened there.”

“I’ve already instructed CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines) and the Civil Aeronautics Board to really look at what happened and see what really happened to the aircraft and how Philippine Airlines responded to the incident,” he added.

The minister informed that all passengers were evacuated and arrangements were being made to put passengers on other flights to Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, a show cause notice has been issued to PAL by the CAAP and the Civil Aeronautics Board, demanding explanation on the reports that no support was made available to the passengers who were deplaned.

“Upon landing, it was noted that no ground personnel or transport support were available to assist the passengers,” the order said, adding, “As you are aware, under the Air Passenger Bill of Rights (APBR), passengers are entitled to timely assistance, accommodation, and information during delays, cancellations, and diversions.”

“Furthermore, existing advisories issued by this Office require airlines to ensure that adequate ground handling support is in place to adequately assist passengers in cases of flight disruptions.”