Air Asia flight overshoots runway

An AirAsia Zest plane carrying 159 passengers and crew overshot a runway in the central Philippines after landing in windy weather from Manila, officials said.

Giovanni Hontomin, who is in charge of AirAsia Zest’s operations, said crew members activated an emergency slide to help passengers disembark from the Airbus A320-200.

There were no immediate reports of injuries and the plane remained stuck on a grassy area near the runway’s end.

Domestic carrier AirAsia Zest is partly owned by AirAsia Philippines.

#AirAsia flight Z2272 overshoots runway at Kalibo Airport in the Philippines No injury reported. pic.twitter.com/JR1UtNf8Io

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) December 30, 2014

Now .. #AirAsia A320 suffered a runway excursion while landing at Kalibo Airport. Passengers' evacuated.#QZ8501 pic.twitter.com/XzdUQswaVW

— Yazan Suleiman (@YazanSuleiman87) December 30, 2014

One passenger, Ms Jet Damazo-Santos, tweeted: “Just landed in Kalibo on an AirAsia flight that overshot runway. Had to deplane using emergency slide.

“Nobody seems to be hurt. Weather was bad. Plane came to a very abrupt stop.”

Initial reports indicated that three of the plane’s tyres got stuck in the mud, said Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesman Eric Apolonio. He said the busy airport would be closed to air traffic until the stalled aircraft, which is likely to have sustained some damage, is towed away from near the runway’s end.

The accident came as a tropical storm set off landslides and flash floods in the southern and central Philippines.

Kalibo town, 217 miles south of Manila, is a busy gateway to the Boracay beach resort, a popular tourist destination.

The accident came after an AirAsia plane crashed into the Java Sea on Sunday during a flight from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board.

It also came two days after another incident involving an AirAsia Zest plane. On Sunday, a jet operated by the carrier developed a tyre problem in the central Philippines city of Tagbilaran while its 184 passengers and crew were boarding, prompting the airline to cancel the flight to Manila, officials said.

The Airbus A320 aircraft’s tyre was later fixed, allowing it to resume its flight to the Philippine capital. No reason was given for the problem.

Budget carrier AirAsia Zest is partly owned by AirAsia Philippines.