JAKARTA: AirAsia offered an apology on Monday over a technical problem experienced by one of its planes during a flight from Perth to Denpasar on Sunday night, forcing it to return to the departing airport 25 minutes into the flight.
“AirAsia apologizes for the inconvenience,” AirAsia Group’s safety head Ling Liong Tien said in a press statement, adding that all passengers had been flown on another flight to Denpasar and that the airline had provided all necessary assistance.
The pilot managed to land flight QZ535 at Perth Airport at 12:20 a.m. local time, Ling said, as reported by kompas.com, adding that the plane was carrying 151 passengers.
He also thanked the the pilot and copilot for landing the plane safely.
Previously, The Sydney Morning Herald news portal reported that the passengers described how they were instructed to adopt the brace position and use their oxygen masks.
Passengers on board an Air Asia flight from Perth to Bali feared for their lives, when their plane plummeted 20-thousand feet. #9Today pic.twitter.com/jKGkY7bFCB — The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) October 15, 2017
A technical problem caused the aircraft to plunge from 32,000 feet to 10,000 ft without warning.
AirAsia Flight Returns To Perth After Mid-air Scare https://t.co/tVvfOwKDCP — AVIATION WORLD (@akohaviation) October 16, 2017
"The masks dropped and everybody started panicking. Nobody told us what was going on," said a female passenger. - The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
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