Malaysia Airlines says sorry for Oz flight terror
A Malaysia Airlines flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur has to make an emergency landing on January 18. 2018 in Alice Springs. — Twitter picture courtesy of Sanjeev Pandey@sppandey81KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 — Malaysia Airlines today apologised to passengers reportedly terrified by a “loud bang” that forced Flight MH122 to abort its flight from Sydney, Australia, but said the plane's safety was never compromised at any time.
Malaysia Airlines Bhd Group chief executive Capt Izham Ismail also commended the pilots and crew for ensuring that passengers were not panicked during the diversion.
“Based on reports received, there was a loud bang heard from the left hand engine. This was followed by a warning indicator which appeared on the electronic aircraft monitoring system.
“The captain then requested for the cabin crew to prepare for a normal landing. There was no chaos reported in the cabin,” he said in a statement.
He said the flight captain made the correct decision to divert the airplane to Alice Springs in order to have the issue rectified.
Izham said all affected passengers were fed and given hotel rooms after the plane landed, and will be flown back to Sydney to catch a replacement flight to Malaysia today.
“I apologize to all our guests over the incident and understand the anxiety experienced,” Izham said.
In news reports of the incident yesterday, passengers on board the plane were quoted as saying they were frightened, with one claiming that the crew appeared “nervous and clueless” after a loud noise emanating from an engine forced the diversion.
Another complained that passengers were not informed of the matter for up to 15 minutes after the episode began.
Malaysia Airlines' safety record has been under added scrutiny after Flight MH370 vanished in 2014 en route to Beijing, while MH17 was also shot down over Ukraine the same year.
Read more at http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/mas-says-sorry-for-oz-flight-terror#0pJYRXcvgfrGOU4a.99
