SIA said that it had arranged hotel accommodation and land transport options for affected passengers. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: More than 300 Singapore Airlines (SIA) passengers were stuck for several hours on a plane at Hokkaido’s New Chitose Airport on Saturday (Jan 10) after the aircraft had to turn back due to a technical issue.
In response to The Straits Times queries, an SIA spokesperson said on Tuesday (Jan 13) that flight SQ661 had departed Sapporo for Singapore at 10.14am local time (9.14am Singapore time).
However, after just slightly over an hour in the air, the Airbus A350-900 medium-haul aircraft returned to the airport after a technical issue was detected.
After landing at 11.30am, the aircraft was “assigned to a remote parking bay at the airport as engineers investigated the issue,” the spokesperson said, adding that there were 301 passengers on board.
SIA later cancelled the flight at 2.15pm as additional time was needed to investigate the issue.
A passenger told Shin Min Daily News that there was no air-conditioning in the cabin for some time.
She added that she was part of a tour group of about 20 people from travel agency ASA Holidays and there was another group from CTC Travel also on board the flight.
The SIA spokesperson said that passengers were given refreshments and meals as they waited in the cabin for ramp buses to take them to the airport terminal.
As there were limited ramp buses available due to the peak travel season in Sapporo, the final group of passengers could disembark the aircraft only at 5pm, more than five hours after they had landed.
SIA said that it had arranged hotel accommodation and land transport options for affected passengers. Meals in Sapporo and Chitose were also provided, where possible.
The spokesperson added that it will reimburse passengers for alternative arrangements made for hotel accommodation and meals.
SIA operated a ferry flight which departed Sapporo at 10.57am on Jan 11 and landed in Singapore at 6.24pm.
The airline said that it also helped those who were transiting in Singapore to rebook their connecting flights.
The Straits Times has contacted ASA Holidays and CTC Travel for more information. - The Straits Times/ANN
