Female pilot earns praises online for flying her plane through heavy turbulence, safely landing it

Passengers applauded pilot Jacqueline Chua, who landed their plane safely and grateful for giving them their second lives. /Photo courtesy: Kemberly Victorioso

CEBU CITY, Philippines— Another modern-day hero has earned praises online.

Female pilot Jacquilyn Chua showed that she is made of sterner stuff and has nerves of steel that a good pilot possesses when she flew her plane through zero visibility and strong turbulence to the safety of the Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City.

Chua was flying a 5:30 p.m. commercial plane from Iloilo City to Davao City on October 3 when they encountered strong violent turbulence at mid-flight.

Despite this, Chua flew through the turbulence and landed the play safely. When the passengers are about to disembark, they applauded the pilot and her first officer Ver Joseph, grateful for her skillfull flying and for giving them a second chance at life.

Netizen Kemberly Victorioso, 23, an English teacher who was one of the passengers, shared their traumatic flight experience on her Facebook account and how thankful she was to Chua for their “second lives.”

“Capt Jacquilyn Chua, was our Pilot, she’s in the photo. Together with FO Ver Joseph Poblete. We really applauded them kase we landed safely, “ Victorioso wrote.

“Mid-flight namin, violent turbulence occurred that really brought panic to all of us,” she said.

She said they screamed every time they hit the turbulence.

“Kase, we thought babagsak talaga kase pababa ang turbulence. (We thought the plane would crash especially since the turbulence was pulling the plane downwards.) Zero visibility I guess kaya natagalan kami. 51 mins lang dapat but I think umabot kami 1hr and 20 mins. But good thing we’re all safe,” said Victorioso.

Victorioso together with some of her colleagues were on their way home to Sultan Kudarat coming from a week of retreat in Iloilo.

The photo,which she posted on October 3, has already garnered 484 comments, 49,000 reactions, and 15,000 shares as of October 5 at 10:20 a.m.

Other netizens like Yanna Rhean commented, “ maka tulo luha habang gabasa ko… amazing kaau ang Ginoo (I cried while reading… God is amazing),” while Mary Grace Dahonos Pequero said, “goosebumps, the best pilot baay maka heart2 (warms the heart).”

This situation yet again proved to everyone that flying a plane not just a man’s world after all. /dbs