Legacy carrier Philippines Airlines has flown home another batch of Filipino overseas workers who were repatriated from Lebanon following the recent explosion in Beirut last month.
PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the flight with 361 OFWs on board arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 8:11 p.m Thursday.
The group was the latest batch in the series of ongoing repatriations initiative of the departments of Labor, and Foreign Affairs in close coordination with the PAL management following the explosion at the Beirut port where at least 200 people died.
Villaluna said PAL sent its 370-seater Boeing 777-300 (RP-C7778) to accomplish the repatriation mission.
PAL flight PR-8680 with its crew — Captains Leo Bernabe and Mark Anthony Fernandez, and Second Officers Jose Miguel Cajucom and Andrew John Santos — departed from Manila on Sept. 2 and arrived in Lebanon’s capital city after a 12-hour 9-minute journey.
The return flight PR-8681 to Manila was manned by First Officers Rowena Rogelio and Capt. Archimedes Masigla, and Second Officers Jason Emmanuel Salvacion and Victor Benjamin Baños.
Villaluna said upon arrival in Manila, the passengers were briefed by personnel of the Bureau of Quarantine, Philippine Coast Guard and PAL representatives on the required testing and quarantine protocols.
“They were given the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) COVID-19 tests and were assisted with land transfers to their designated quarantine facilities where they will stay until test results are released,” she said.
The DFA is also set to mount another chartered flight from Beirut, catering to those distressed Filipinos who had expressed their desire to be repatriated.
