By: O. Safitrie*)
AirAsia is still under spotlight after the deadly accident of QZ8501 last December, yet Air Asia has made a new headline by aborting the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah on Sunday (8/2) due to system malfunction.
“One auto-thrust not functioning properly. Actually okay to fly but we just returning it to base,” AirAsia’s CEO Tony Fernandes told AFP in a text message.
Flight D7172 departed from Malaysia at 11.15 am. It flew over Malacca strait for more than four hours until the pilot finally landed the aircraft at Kuala Lumpur airport. This action was done to dump the fuel so that the aircraft can land safely.
This incident then trigger some reactions on social media about the Malaysian airline’s safety record. The search and rescue process for QZ8501 is still ongoing. The plane with 162 people on board crashed when it approached a line of thunderstorms off the southwest coast of Borneo. This accident was the AirAsia group’s first deadly accident, but it followed two other deadly Malaysia Airlines incidents in 2014 that killed over 500 people.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared last March after inexplicably diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing course. The airliner, carrying 239 people, is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, but no trace has been found.
MH17 went down last July in rebellion-torn eastern Ukraine — believed hit by a surface-to-air missile — killing all 298 aboard. Malaysia Airlines had previously had a solid safety record.
“What is happening with Malaysia and airplanes? This is really, really scary,” posted one Twitter user.
*)The Author Is Singapore Contributor
