Jetliner Kills 8 on Highway in Crash at Manila

A Philippine Airlines jet with 98 people aboard overshot a runway in a rainstorm and crashed onto a busy highway Friday, killing eight people on the ground, officials and witnesses said.

The dead were in four vehicles crushed by the twin-engine BAC-111 jetliner when it hit the 12-lane highway, witnesses and hospital officials said. Among the dead was a 1 1/2-year-old boy.

Airline officials said 91 people were injured, four critically. Of those hurt, 81 were passengers who suffered mostly minor cuts, said Enrique Santos, an airline spokesman.

The plane was landing at the Manila airport Friday afternoon on a flight from Zamboanga City, 540 miles southeast of the capital, Santos said.

According to air traffic controllers, the pilot, Capt. Ricardo Misa, said he could see only half the runway as he approached because of the heavy rain.

But Santos declined to speculate that weather was the principal factor in the accident.

‘Cleared to Land’

“The pilot said he was cleared to land,” Santos said. “It was raining at the time, but weather conditions were above the minimum for landing, so he was cleared to land. Visibility was three kilometers (1.8 miles). He was told to land ‘when runway on sight.’ He landed, and he ran out of runway.”

Witnesses said the plane bounced several times on the runway, then crashed through a concrete wall before rolling across the 12-lane highway. It came to a halt with much of its belly ripped off.

“We came down and went up again about 150 feet. Then we went down again very steeply,” said passenger Beverly Spilman, 50, a British teacher who is vacationing in the Philippines.

“I did see we were nearing the end of the runway . . . then we hit the highway,” said Spilman, who suffered only minor cuts.

“The flight was smooth, but the landing was very, very rough,” said David Tillson, 55, of Tacoma, Wash. “We landed, three, four, five, six times on the runway. We were actually bouncing.”

Officials closed the highway. The rescue was hampered by heavy rain and traffic jams on streets leading to the scene.

Manila airport manager Eduardo Carrascoso said the plane suffered major damage and would be dismantled to retrieve reusable parts. Although the plane’s belly was ripped open, the fuselage remained largely intact.