PLANE WITH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SUDDENLY SLIDE IN PHILIPPINES

PLANE  SKID OFF TACLOBAN RUNWAY

A plane carrying 15 people including top government officials skidded off the runway after trying to take off at Tacloban Airport past 1 p.m. Saturday.

According to the Presidential spokesman,Edwin Lacierda said strong winds forced the plane carrying Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa, Secretary Sonny Coloma, Undersecretary Manny Bautista and Undersecretary Felizardo Serapio, 8 other staff members and 3 crew members to overshoot the runway at Tacloban Airport.

"The aforementioned officials were on hand in Tacloban to ensure that the activities of Pope Francis in Tacloban and Palo would go as planned, he said.

He added: "All 15 passengers and crew members are all comfort safe and suffered no injuries. The families of those on board have also been assured that their loved ones are safe."

Lacierda said President Aquino was happy to hear that all on board were safe. He said the President directed the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to investigate whether the proximate cause of the incident was weather-related or otherwise.

Congresswoman Josephine Veronique Lacson-Noel, one of the passengers of the plane, told ABS-CBN the plane's tire blew up as it was about to take off. Lacson-Noel is married to former An Waray Rep. Bem Noel.

The plane, a Bombardier jet, is currently on a grassy portion at the end of the runway at Tacloban Airport.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino, who was on a separate plane, said his flight cannot take off since fire trucks are blocking the runway.

"We cannot take off because there is debris," he said.

DZMM reports said the rain has weakened but the wind has gotten stronger in the area.

The incident happened less than an hour after Pope Francis left the airport via a Philippine Airlines plane.

Asypeters Info House gather that, PAGASA earlier hoisted Storm Signal No. 2 over Northern Samar, Eastern Samar and Samar and Leyte including Biliran due to Tropical Storm Amang.