Heavy rains, mud and even darkness were blamed by Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Ed Monreal as factors in the state-owned airport operator’s very slow response at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) when a Xiamen Airlines plane skidded off the runway two weeks ago.

Most senators, however, branded Monreal’s “excuses” as unacceptable.

During yesterday’s Senate inquiry into the Xiamen Airlines incident last 16 August, Monreal was grilled by senators for MIAA’s inadequate response that led to a 36-hour paralysis at NAIA that stranded an estimated 250,000 passengers.

Monreal, in justifying the delay in the clearing of Xiamen Airlines’ Boeing 737 from the main runway, cited continued heavy rains, mud and even darkness at the site.

He also blamed a series of incidents involving the cranes that sought to pull the aircraft out of the mud. Monreal said there were problems in assembling the huge cranes.

Monreal was also scored for the 61 uncoordinated flights during the paralysis and MIAA’s failure to provide food and other assistance to those stuck at the airport.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, whose parents were stranded for two days, said it was unacceptable to hear Monreal trying to justify the delay in the MIAA’s response to the airport crisis.

“It’s unacceptable…to hear ‘because it was raining, it was dark’…walk the extra mile, exert more efforts,” Villanueva said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said while MIAA has P15 billion cash at any given time, it failed to provide assistance to stranded passengers.

“You have so much money but you failed to help,” lamented Recto.

Former Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, who was a guest during the hearing, grilled Monreal for the delayed arrival of the crane.

“It took you nine hours to call for cranes,” Osmeña said, adding Monreal could have immediately contacted crane operators to expedite the procedure of pulling out the airplane.

Osmeña also countered claim by the MIAA general manager that the efforts to carefully clear the aircraft and the accident scene were slowed down by the presence of combustible fuel there for safety purposes.

Monreal said it took responding team hours to carefully clear four tons of fuel from the plane.

The former senator stressed that Jet A1 gas is not combustible. “It will not explode…that’s a scientific fact,” he said.

Sen. Nancy Binay lashed out at Monreal for the 61 uncoordinated flights that happened at the height of the paralysis despite claims he was “on top of the situation” the whole time.

Monreal admitted during the hearing, presided over by Sen. Grace Poe, that MIAA was not even able to provide food to thousands of passengers stranded by the 36-hour paralysis at the NAIA.

The MIAA general manager said they failed to give food to stranded passengers as they were focused more on rescue, the clearing of the main runway and the recovery of the Xiamen Airlines 737-Boeing that skidded.

“I am not making any excuses, I am just stating facts,” Monreal said.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said transport officials did the best they could to remove the stalled airplane even as he apologized for the inconvenience it caused to thousands of travelers and overseas Filipino workers (OFW) stranded for days due to the incident.

Tugade cited at the hearing the “regrettable” incident involving Xiamen Airlines Boeing 737-800 was neither of their “own liking” nor of their “own making.”

The incident resulted in hundreds of flights to be canceled during its extraction, as well as additional flights, even after the runway was cleared due to the domino effect it created on delaying flight schedules.

“I am deeply sorry for the inconveniences caused by the incident. I apologize to all our citizens who were looking forward to a fun holiday. I apologize to our OFW who missed their flights,” Tugade said.

However, Tugade believed that authorities responded to the situation in a reasonable time.

“We did what had to be done. We did our best given the circumstances,” he said.

According to Tugade, what happened at NAIA is not a unique incident and the 36 hours it took them to extract the downed aircraft was a reasonable time.

He cited a similar incident in Thailand that took authorities four days to extract the aircraft, and a similar one in Nepal, which took two days.

Tugade added an incident in the United States involving a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 took authorities 24 hours to clear.

“It took us 36 hours. I won’t say fast enough, but I’d like to believe that it was a reasonable time given the circumstances,” he said.

“We are not here to justify what happened. We are here to say that these things do happen.

It was an accident no one wanted and we responded as fast as we could. We tried to minimize the inconveniences the way we could,” Tugade said.

Still, Tugade said the NAIA runway incident served as an eye-opener to airport authorities.

While the MIAA has highly-trained personnel and is properly equipped to deal with emergencies, he said the incident made the agency consider purchasing modern equipment such as a microscopic crane to extract a stalled aircraft.

Tugade also recommended a review of the airline passengers’ bill of rights.

Meanwhile, he assured the public policies and projects aimed at decongesting the country’s premier airport are continuously being implemented.

These include prioritizing commercial flights over general aviation during peak hours, the five-minute rule in taking off, the construction of Rapid Exit Taxiways to enable planes to exit the runway at faster speeds and the transfer of more flights to Clark.