It was a long overdue get together.
Nope, I am not complaining but it was just that our schedules did not jibe. Our group understands that Transportation Secretary Jaime “JJB” J. Bautista’s hands are full learning the ropes of government service, the protocols of which are entirely different from that of the private sector where he spent more than 40 years of his career life.
It wasn’t also because of the New Year’s Day incident that it finally happened last week. Though, I must admit we were all curious to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, replete with facial expressions.
Originally, it was scheduled for lunch but JJB and his team that includes Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Cesar Chiong, were summoned to the Palace. Thus, it was moved to dinner.
We’ve known JJB for over 25 years when he was what we call the statistics wizard (he can easily rattle off investment and other important numbers) of the Lucio Tan Group. This was even before he became the chief steward of PAL Express and eventually named PAL president in 2004.
In the words of one group member: “It was a long delayed get together…to celebrate friendship.” As unfolding events tell us, it wasn’t a pink slip dinner after all.
To put things in its right perspective, even prior to the January 1st incident, rumors were going around the business corridors that there’ll be some changes in the Cabinet and we were a bit bothered that he might be included because of the glitch.
Salute to Sen. Grace Poe, who objected to the call for JJB to resign simply because the incident that led to the cancellation, diversion and flight delays, affecting scores of both inbound and outbound passengers was not altogether his fault. Thus, the current House and Senate probes.
Rightly so because as I write this piece to meet my deadline, news that thousands of flights across the US were grounded after the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that the US Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system has failed. NOTAM informs pilots of the circumstances relative to the state of flying and are required before an aircraft can take off.
Yes, Virginia, whether ‘twas a technical glitch or something else can also happen in first world countries such as the US. Some point to Mercury retrograde. For the fourth and final time, Mercury went retrograde last Dec. 29, which ends next week, January 18. During this stretch, all sorts of things are being blamed on the planet of communication’s retrograde period, from technology mishaps to misunderstandings with friends and loved ones.
Going back to JJB, who might be after him, the gentle soul? This was raised because of the uncanny school of thought that the incident was allegedly done surreptitiously. LRT Line 1 likewise stopped operating, though, temporarily and was back on track after a little over seven minutes. Come to think of it: land and air, good thing no untoward incident at the sea, otherwise it’s a complete cycle, land air and sea.
It wasn’t that the entire Philippine airspace was closed because at 9:49 a.m. when the “ground stop” was ordered there were still 24 flights that were allowed to land as they already entered the airspace but were diverted elsewhere like Cebu and Clark. An air traffic management initiative, a ground stop is ordered due to several factors – one of them is loss of communication, which was what happened on New Year’s Day.
What came in handy during the glitch was the assistance provided by Singapore Air Traffic Control that guided flights that over-fly Philippine airspace. This was made possible through the ASEAN International Airports Association.
The gentle soul and his team were given a pat on their back by no less than the President for bringing the flights back on track. From close to 60 percent cancellation during the glitch, flights the following day were three flights short of the 758 on December 31 and zero cancellation January 3.
As the turbines of airplanes spin, lessons learned from the glitch will guide transport officials, airport authorities and airline operators to work together craft plans and implement programs for the comfort of the passengers.
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