MANILA — A Xiamen Air aircraft with 165 people on board veered off an airport runway in the Philippines capital of Manila shortly before midnight on Thursday, but there were no casualties.
The Boeing 737-800, landing after a flight from Xiamen “went off the runway during a heavy downpour”, said Connie Bungag, the officer in charge of Manila International Airport Authority’s public affairs office, said. “We are still determining how it happened.”
Xiamen Air is a subsidiary of China Southern Airlines.
“All 157 passengers and eight crew were evacuated without injuries, according to XiamenAir,” Boeing said in a statement, adding it was closely monitoring the situation.
Philippine airport authorities said the passengers of Xiamen flight 8667 would be brought to a hotel near Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), which services international flights to the country.
Still images of the aircraft carried by local media on Twitter showed the left wing of the Xiamen Air 737 touching the ground.
Due to the incident, NAIA’s international runway will be closed until 12 p.m. local time on Friday, a separate statement from airport authorities said. —Reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; additional reporting by Eric Johnson in Seattle
