No way out: Passengers were trapped on the skybridge when the glass door leading into the Kota Kinabalu International Airport terminal remained closed.
KOTA KINABALU: Passengers arriving on a flight from Kuala Lumpur were trapped for 10 minutes in one of Kota Kinabalu International Airport’s skybridges because the glass door in the terminal was locked.
“We touched down at KKIA on Wednesday at 6.07pm. As passengers continued to disembark the aircraft, the skybridge quickly filled up. We were basically trapped with no way forward.
“No ground crew could be seen in the terminal,” said Malaysian Tourist Guides Council president Jimmy Leong Wie Kong, who was one of the trapped passengers.
He recalled that they were stuck for about 10 minutes before one passenger returned to the aircraft to alert the cabin crew. Only then was the glass door finally opened.
“An official was later spotted by the door, but he appeared preoccupied with his cellphone. There was no word of apology from him.
“This incident made many of us frustrated and angry,” Leong said, adding that it should not have happened in the first place.
“I believe the airport authority is aware of the ETA and staff should be at the designated gate to ‘welcome’ arriving passengers.
“Most of the passengers were tourists from South Korea and China, and this incident does not reflect well on our professionalism,” he said, adding that the bad experience happened right at the entry point into the state.
“In all my decades of travelling through international airports, this is the first time I have experienced something like this,” said Leong.
Meanwhile, a mechanical door malfunction has been identified as the culprit.
State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew told the media she had contacted Sabah Tourism Board chief executive officer Julinus Jimit for an explanation.
“I was told that there was a malfunction on the aircraft that controls the door. It was not the airport infrastructure’s fault,” she said yesterday.
