US-bound flight carrying Pacquiao makes medical emergency landing in Japan
A Philippine Airlines flight carrying Senator Manny Pacquiao bound for the United States made an emergency landing at Haneda airport in Japan early Sunday morning due to a medical emergency of one of the passengers.
PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna, in a text message, said PR102 flight from Manila to Los Angeles, California, USA departed Manila at 9 p.m. on Saturday.
But she said the flight was "diverted to Haneda to address a medical emergency."
The plane landed at Haneda at 3:36 a.m. Japan time.
"The medical emergency was addressed after medical personnel in HND (Haneda) entered the aircraft and provided medical support," Villaluna said.
The flight returned to Manila and arrived at 11:55 a.m.
Villaluna said all the passengers were brought to the waiting area while Pacquiao was escorted to the VIP lounge in preparation for the replacement flight.
Replacement flight PR5102 took off at 2:36 p.m. on Sunday with 174 passengers on board from the previous 186 passengers.
The plane is expected to arrive in Los Angeles at 11 a.m. local time on July 5.
Pacquiao left for Los Angeles to prepare for his boxing match with Errol Spence Jr. in Las Vegas on August 21.
Before he left, on Saturday, Pacquiao held a press conference and named the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, and Department of Energy as alleged corrupt agencies.
He made the expose after President Rodrigo Duterte challenged him to list down the alleged corrupt agencies in his administration.
Duterte became irked by Pacquiao, his former ally and partymate in PDP-Laban, after the boxing champ accused the current government of being three times more corrupt than the previous administrations. Celerina Monte/DMS
