I had a trip in Hongkong dated July 10-13,2010. I was with my daughter and my boyfriend. We had fun in Hongkong but 3 days was not enough to travel all over the city and see other cities there but we were able to visit Disneyland of course. We wouldn't want to miss Disney right?
When we checked in at the airport for our departure back to Manila, our flight was delayed for half an hour due to typhoon in Manila and we have not yet had the gate for boarding so we waited at the airport for announcement and roam a little bit and had dinner. Finally, our flight was changed to 10pm and our gate for boarding was flashed on the screen.
When we were about to land Manila Airport, a terrible thing happened. Because of the strong wind due to typhoon, our plane was shaking so much that I felt that the plane is going to crash. I started praying out loud as well as my boyfriend was also praying in his own language while my daughter was crying. All three of us held hands as me and my boyfriend prayed aloud. I called for Lord, Jesus Christ, Mama Mary and Guardian Angels to keep our plane safe and save us repeatedly.
It was the feeling of our final lives on that plane and it was like a movie where u can feel that its your end already. All the passengers I'm sure were so scared as we were though I couldn't hear them crying or praying but myself, my boyfriend and my daughter. We could hear the plane with its crashing sounds with the dark clouds outside and we couldn't see anything. I was thinking why it's taking so long to land and the shaking of the plane took about 10mins or so. Until we felt the plane flew up the clouds again to the safe level of thousand feet then the Pilot announced that we have experienced a strong wind due to typhoon and he couldn't land Manila Airport so we will be diverted to Mactan, Cebu airport instead.
After that announcement, the most disappointments I heard from the other passengers of that plane was, they want to go to Boracay instead. Why not tell the pilot to divert in Boracay and the guys infront of us started laughing and talking as if nothing happened few minutes ago. As if they pretended not afraid of what had happened and was not scared of anything. I said to myself, Am I the only one and my boyfriend who got scared? Are we the only ones who felt it or they were just numb and doesn't care if the plane is going to crash or something. I wanted to shout at them at that time to make them stop talking and laughing and tell them to just sit down and THANK GOD that we were saved and nothing happened on the plane.
After an hour, we landed on Mactan Airport and got in to the boarding gate and sat on the benches there. I think we were like 150-200 passengers on that flight. Some of the passengers with children got angry and created a scene there because nobody from Cebu Pacific staff were assisting even their supervisor. Well its middle of the night at that time but to think that airports are 24hrs open so they should have a supervisor or a Manager to assist the passengers that got stranded there since I'm pretty sure they were advised of the situation in Manila and the typhoon and all the planes that got diverted there in Mactan airport.
Many passengers, pissed me off of their noises and shouting and arguing with the staff there and one of them threw a shoe on a security guards face asking for a carton to mat on the floor for her children to sleep on. My boyfriend was silent and I knew that he was so tired already and wanted to sleep but because of the noises and all, he couldn't find a good position to sleep on the bench. He didn't eat anything except for water. The staff gave bottles of water but was not enough for allthe passengers so again, some passengers started shouting and complaining again as if they are the only ones stranded and hungry and thirsty there.
I wonder, why Filipinos are like this? Is it our nature to be impatient and create a scene just to get attention from other people? Can't we be civilized in times like this and not panic so much for we were already safe on land? Other nationalities didn't complain and created a scene there except for Pinoys and pinays. I find it really embarrassing especially they have been shouting and complaining from 2am-5am. Can you imagine that???
So we waited and waited for the announcement and the next day at 6am, they have announced that our flight back to Manila will be at 9:30am. The food from Jollibee came at 9am which of course we were about to board the plane already and the food was not enough again for all the stranded passengers.
Finally we sat in the plane and prayed until we reached Manila airport safe and the sun has started to shine again. Manila airport was blackout. We got in to our service car going to the hotel. Had shower and had out lunch at 3pm.
I hope my daughter will not be traumatized as well as my boyfriend co'z that was his 2nd time to experienced typhoon in Manila.
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