After missing a runway in stormy weather the previous night, a damaged Korean Air jet remained stranded in the grass at a major airport in the center of the Philippines on Monday.
The 162 passengers and 11 staff members who used emergency slides to leave the airplane without suffering any injuries did not.
Numerous flights have been canceled, and Mactan-Cebu International Airport, one of the busiest in the nation, is still closed due to the grounded plane at the end of the airport’s only active runway.
The harrowing near-miss prompted a public apology from the president of Korean Air and a promise from one of Asia’s most illustrious carriers to take precautions to avoid a repeat.
“We always prioritize safety in all of our operations, and we truly regret the stress and inconvenience brought to our passengers,” Korean Air President Woo Keehong said in a statement.
The plane’s nose sustained significant damage, and its front underbelly was torn off.
The emergency slides were deployed at the doors, and the aircraft was lying tip-over forward on a patch of grass.
A ripped-open hole was also near the front door at the aircraft’s top.
Before attempts to remove the plane at the end of the runway began, Philippine officials claimed the remaining fuel would be drained off.
Authorities also determined whether it would be safe to enable the other aircraft stuck at the airport to take off.
The flag carrier Philippine Airlines, which first announced more than 50 canceled domestic flights, had many of its flights to and from Cebu province canceled.
The accident was being investigated in the Philippines.
According to a statement from Korean Air Lines Co., the Airbus A330 departing from Incheon, South Korea, made two attempts to land before overrunning the runway on the third attempt.
During takeoff from Manila’s international airport in 1981, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 airliner overshot the runway and slid to rest at the edge of a busy roadway.
The accident injured more than a dozen of the roughly 350 passengers on board.
The front of the aircraft, terrifyingly projecting over a busy side road on a major highway south of the city of Manila, struck a concrete fence before coming to a stop on its belly.
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