TWO airline employees, one of them a woman, were seriously hurt when heaps of three-inch thick plaster lining the ceiling of the baggage conveyor area at the basement of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 1 rained down on workers at about 5 a.m. on Tuesday.
Flordeliza Tayson, a private security guard, and Rommel Reyes, a station loader of Delta Air, were immediately taken to the Makati Medical Center.
Tayson suffered wounds in the head, while Reyes was hit on the right leg by the falling debris; he was pronounced out of danger and released by hospital doctors.
But Tayson remains in serious condition, according to a report by Dr. Claro Isidro, Naia physician.
Nine hours later, at about 3 p.m., a larger heap of plaster at the East Satellite, Bay 7, departure area, also fell down. Luckily, nobody was hurt this time.
The baggage conveyor area is a busy place; it is where all departing pieces of luggage are sorted out for delivery to specific aircraft.
It was about 5 a.m. when workers heard a crashing sound and discovered that the plaster cement of the ceiling had collapsed, hitting Tayson and Reyes.
The workers promptly helped their two colleagues, alerting the airport ambulance that took them to the Makati Medical Center.
The airport’s Intelligence and Investigation Division reported that the incident occured during the departure of Delta Air Flight DL 630 bound for Detroit. The flight was not delayed, however.
Airport authorities attributed the accident to the airport’s age; Naia 1 is 28 years old and apparently falling apart. Several major earthquakes in the past may also have contributed to the weakening of the building’s ceiling and foundations.
Some years back, some concrete slabs or “cement cladding,” fell from the upper deck of the building and came crashing down near the Naia medical clinic; nobody was hurt.
Following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake of October 1991, the Naia 1 building suffered major damage— some of its upper claddings fell and huge cracks appeared on its walls. However, major repairs were eventually made and the walls and other parts of the building were reinforced.
Naia general manager Jose Honrado, in an interview in March, said the airport was spending P10 million to determine the structural integrity of the building and decide whether to spend more for its rehabilitation.
“If the architects decide that the Naia 1 is now structurally unsound, then there is no point spending millions of pesos for its upgrading,” Honrado said.
Lately, however, the Manila International Airport Authority had spent millions of pesos beautifying the interior of the building, improving the toilets and providing better amenities for passengers.
