It was the weather: AirAsia
Published on: Saturday, November 13, 2004
Kota Kinabalu: Initial findings showed that wet conditions caused the AirAsia Boeing 737-300 aircraft to veer off the runway while landing at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport last Sunday.AirAsia Group Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes said although investigations on the flight recorder would take about three months to complete, bad weather at the time could be the culprit.He also shot down rumours that the pilot did not get clearance from the control tower to land.
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"That's rubbishÖwe would lose our air operating licence. The tower gave us the clearance to land," he said in a teleconference, here, Friday.Fernandes said it was rather unfortunate that shortly after getting the clearance the weather turned really bad resulting in the incident.He also expressed regret that some of the reports in the press were "dramatised and sensationalised"."There were no emotional things happening," he said.
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First of all, he said no passengers were injured while on board the plane. Many of those reported were sustained during the emergency evacuation."There was also no smoke in the aircraft at all. The captain did a fantastic job and I am very proud of the crewÖthey managed to clear the aircraft within 60 seconds. That's a tremendous achievement," he said.
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Fernandes clarified said he did not come out with a statement immediately after the incident because he was in Beijing.He said AirAsia also did not anticipate any legal actions to be taken against them by the passengers.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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