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Royal Air Philippines Mishap: 170 Korean Passengers Stranded in Philippines
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Rational Travel recently heard an absolutely outrageous story—Royal Air Philippines has caused quite a stir in South Korea these past few days! 170 Korean tourists were left stranded in the Philippines, stuck there for two whole days. And it’s not your typical plane malfunction story where a flight gets grounded unexpectedly. No, this charter flight actually departed early for South Korea with no passengers on board—literally empty, flying back. It’s truly bizarre. The incident happened in early March on a flight from the Philippines to Jeju Island. The flight was originally scheduled to depart at 4:30 PM, but somehow took off four hours early, leaving all passengers behind in Manila.
Now there’s conflicting information from all sides. A Jeju Island travel agency claims the airline departed without authorization ahead of schedule. Royal Air Philippines insists the flight time never changed and blames the travel agency for misreading the schedule, saying the time on the ticket was always that way. Currently, the whole incident is still under investigation with both sides pointing fingers at each other, playing what looks like a detective drama. Reportedly, this was the first charter package plan launched by the Korean Tourism Board this year, and it started with a disaster—170 passengers forced to stay in Manila for an extra two days. The travel agency had to put everyone up in a hotel, and both the airline and local travel agency are now trying to figure out exactly where things went wrong. The incident not only has Korean social media in an uproar, but has also got Rational Travel wondering: What on earth was this airline thinking?
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