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Bomb hoax delays AirAsia flight to Indonesia
A poor choice of words led to the temporary grounding of an Indonesia-bound AirAsia flight at KLIA2 in Malaysia .
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AirAsia Airbus A320 passenger jets on the tarmac in Sepang, Malaysia, in November 2014. (AP/Vincent Thian)
A poor choice of words led to the temporary grounding of an Indonesia-bound AirAsia flight at KLIA2 in Malaysia.
Flight AK423 was scheduled to depart for Banda Aceh in Aceh, at about 7.40 a.m. on Wednesday, but was halted after a flight attendant allegedly overheard one of the passengers talking about a bomb.
Police investigations found that the passenger in question had mentioned the words “ada bom kot” (maybe there’s a bomb).
Sepang OCPD Asst Comm Abdul Aziz Ali said police received a call from the Airport Operation Control Centre (OCC), after which police were deployed to the aircraft to ascertain the situation.
The 129 passengers and crew were evacuated for security reasons and a thorough bomb sweep on the plane and its cargo was conducted after the plane was brought to a secure location.
However, nothing out of the ordinary was found by the police and the passenger in question was off-loaded and taken into custody.
“Don’t joke about threats in airports or planes because action can be taken,” advised ACP Aziz.
An airline representative said the plane eventually departed for Indonesia at 2.13 p.m.
