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Citilink plane forced to land after child nearly opens emergency door
The plane made an emergency landing after a 6-year-old passenger removed the protective cover on an emergency exit handle during the flight.
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A Citilink plane taxies on a runway. (Courtesy of Citilink's LinkedIn page) (LinkedIn/Courtesy of Citilink)
C
itilink flight QG 944 from Jakarta to Batam was forced to make an emergency landing at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport in Palembang on Monday, after a 6-year-old passenger removed the protective cover on an emergency exit handle.
Batam Chamber of Commerce and Industry chair Jadi Rajagukguk was one of the passengers on the flight.
"The door opened slightly, and the emergency landing alarm blared," Jadi told Batamnews, as quoted by Kumparan.com, on Tuesday.
Jadi, who said he fell asleep about an hour after takeoff, was awoken by the sound of flight attendants rushing toward the emergency exit. The attendants tried to close the emergency door’s lever cover, which had been almost completely opened by the child.
However, there was little panic because “many passengers were asleep and the flight attendants did not inform them of the incident”, Jadi added.
The Citilink Airbus 320 aircraft departed from Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tangerang, at 3:35 p.m. local time and was scheduled to arrive at Hang Nadim Airport in Batam at 5:05 p.m. However, the route was changed after the cabin crew notified the pilot of the incident mid-flight.
"The captain immediately decided to divert the flight to the nearest airport to check the technical condition of the aircraft and make sure it was in good condition to ensure flight safety and security," wrote PT Citilink Indonesia vice president corporate secretary Diah Suryani in a statement released on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com.
