Malaysia to probe sabotage angle on City-bound flight

The Malaysian Police on Monday said they will probe if there was any sabotage behind the emergency landing of a Bangalore-bound flight carrying 166 people on board. The Malaysia Airlines Flight MH192 turned back following a tyre burst and faulty landing gear.

“Investigations would be carried out to see if there were elements of sabotage on the plane,” Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said while responding to acting  transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s call for the police to conduct an investigation.

The Boeing 737-800,carrying 159 passengers and seven crew members – was en route to Bangalore from here when it made the emergency landing. The people on board the plane were unharmed as the plane landed safely at KLIA around 1.56 am (local time). The flight had departed at 10.09 pm (local time) on Sunday,  Malaysia Airlines (MAS) tweeted. The jet was scheduled to arrive in Bangalore at 11.35 pm IST on Sunday. A Malaysia Airlines spokesperson confirmed the rescheduled flight took off at 3:35 pm local time  on Monday.

Deep anxiety

The episode caused deep anxiety among passengers, with some crying and reciting prayers as the plane circled for hours off the coast, the Malaysian media reported.
The plane circled in order to burn up fuel– a common practice in such landings, designed to make the plane lighter and minimise fire risks.

“The passengers were very scared when we learnt that the flight was having trouble,” the New Straits Times quoted a Dutch traveller as saying. “Some were crying, while most of us had already started reciting prayers.”

Meanwhile, the harried passengers have hailed the pilot as a hero for being “calm” during the crisis.

Many took the chance to tell Hishammuddin of their experiences and feeling of relief.
The passengers praised the flight's pilot Captain Nor Adam Azmi for what they described as "excellent landing" given the circumstances.

K Satish Shetty, a businessman from Manipal said he was very satisfied of how the pilot handled the situation. He said Adam managed to land the Boeing 737-800 smoothly and in short distance without any untoward incident.

“The problem happened right during takeoff, when we heard a loud noise before the  aircraft started shaking. We knew that something had gone wrong, before the pilot told us that there is a problem with the aircraft and they are trying to identify it,” Shetty said.
"The pilot then told us that we need to make a turn-back to KLIA, and we continued flying over Malaysian airspace for several hours to burn the fuel before he made landing attempts," he said.

Raja Gopal Menon who was on board the flight knew something was wrong with the plane  as the aircraft had started shaking. He said that was the only point he was afraid.
“The pilot was calm and helped us through the whole process," he said.