Pilots argue in cockpit, passengers walk out of aircraft
About 20 passengers on a Malindo Air flight from George Town, Penang, bound for Subang, Selangor, disembarked minutes before takeoff.
The reason: They heard what they claimed was “a loud argument from the cockpit”.
A passenger said seven of them eventually decided not to continue with their flight while the rest went back on board after the pilot apologised, The Star reported.
The one-hour flight with the remaining 52 passengers finally departed at 10.30pm on Thursday after a 50-minute delay and landed safely in Subang.
But a Facebook post of the incident, supposedly written by a friend of one of the passengers, has since gone viral.
A passenger, who only wanted to be known as Mr Kee, said they heard a “yell” from the cockpit when a stewardess opened the door to come out.
Passengers shocked
“Apparently, the pilot and the co-pilot were having a serious fight. It was so loud that all the passengers were shocked,” said Kee in an interview on Friday.
Mr Kee, who flies on the airline between Kuala Lumpur and Penang for work, added: “A foreigner sitting on the front row then stood up and asked for permission to leave the aircraft. About 20 of us followed him.
“We went into the airport building and, after a while, the pilot came down from the plane to apologise and invited us back on board.”
While most of the passengers chose to go back, Mr Kee said he and six others, including the foreigner, felt that both the pilot and co-pilot were unfit to fly due to their emotional condition.
Read the full report here
Source: The Star
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