Passengers stuck inside plane for an hour

Air Asia flight AK901 left Bali on 20th February as scheduled at 1.55 pm. The flight was smooth for most of the journey except for the bumps during the descent to Kuala Lumpur due to bad weather. The passengers were in fact due for a bigger shock when the plane landed on time at 4.40pm.

We were not allowed to disembark due to the rain that greeted us. It seems passengers are at risk since the airport area is prone to lightning. The captain said the wait might be ten to fifteen minutes. Some passengers became more impatient as the wait approached the half hour mark. I even overhead a girl saying that she is willing to sign a legal waiver absolving the authorities if anything happened to her on the tarmac. Alas, to no avail. So we remained seated and endured the forced detention.

Anyway, we had a pleasant surprise when the back door opened and passengers were allowed to disembark after the one hour wait. It was still drizzling and a trolley full of umbrellas were waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. To everyone's utter disbelief, the distance between the rear door and the covered portion of the terminal was only about five minutes away. I guess we should be thankful to those managing the airline and airport that safety is their priority. Can't have everything our own way all the time, can we?

Moral of this tale, add another waiting period to your list of waits when using Air Asia.

Taken for a ride

The light rail transit system commuters in Kuala Lumpur using the Kelana Jaya line are a hardy lot. Yesterday was the umpteenth time the service had a malfunction during the peak morning hours. The commuters try to heed the government’s call to use the public transportation system in their daily lives and in return are rewarded with the sloppy and shoddy service.

Kuala Lumpur’s traffic headache will never end as long as the so called public transportation system does not rise to the occasion. Most probably those behind the master plan for a better public transportation system have not themselves used the available system at the moment. They would never realize the frustrations and the time wasted for all the frequent hiccups that occur almost daily. No wonder KLites still prefer to use their own cars to go from point A to point B despite the hefty increase in fuel, parking fees and toll rates.

No political will power, no properly thought out plans, every solution seems to be on an ad hoc basis. This saga will never end.