KLIA systems disruption: Don’t speculate, let investigations proceed, says Loke

PUTRAJAYA (Bernama): Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook has urged everyone including airport operators to refrain from speculating on the recent systems disruption at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as it needs to be thoroughly investigated.

Loke said all parties need to give time to the police and the committee set up to investigate the issue of failure of the KLIA Total Airport Management System (TAMS) to conduct their investigations.

“We don’t want to speculate as this is a major issue. This is not something we can speculate on as it involves the country’s main entry point, apart from being an icon as well as being strategically located.

“So what was going on there should be investigated thoroughly and I don’t want anyone including the airport operator to make any speculation, ” he told a press conference here Friday (Aug 30).

Loke announced the formation of the committee to investigate the KLIA TAMS failure issues on Aug 26 following a disruption to the airport systems on Aug 21, resulting in the cancellation and delay of flights and discomfort for passengers for several days.

On Aug 26, Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad Group (MAHB) chief executive officer Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin reportedly said that MAHB was not ruling out the possibility that the network failure at the KLIA and KLIA2 was caused by an “act of malicious intent”.

MAHB was also reported to have lodged a police report following the systems interruption on Aug 27.

Loke said the committee had been given a month to conduct investigations including calling witnesses to give statements.

“They are working around the clock, every day there is a meeting, there is an investigation, ” he said.

He said the committee was conducting the investigations to identify the real cause of the incident and to suggest improvements to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future.

Police have also been conducting separate investigations to determine if there were any criminal elements involved and to take further action, he said. – Bernama