Flight MH2664 on April 3 performed an air turn-back due to technical issues with the aircraft, MAS said. – Picture by Hari Anggara
KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) confirmed that one of its planes en route to Tawau was forced to turn back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) 30 minutes into its flight on Sunday.
According to a report by Free Malaysia Today (FMT), MAS said the flight had been hit by both technical issues and bad weather, and the pilot made the decision with passenger safety in mind, landing the plane safely at KLIA at 5.03pm on April 3.
“Flight MH2664 from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau on April 3 performed an air turn-back due to technical issues with the aircraft, compounded by bad weather en route,” MAS was quoted as saying by FMT.
This came after a passenger — Halimah Nasoha — took to social media to share her experience.
She claimed that half an hour into the flight, the plane took a “sharp dive” from 31,000 feet to 24,000 feet in a matter of seconds, based on her checks of the Flightradar24 tracking application.
“It was very frightening for many of us. I really felt like I was going to die.
“I was upset because I didn’t wear a seatbelt at that time. The flight was unstable. It went up and then went down. But, the first time it went downwards was the worst,” she said in her Facebook page.
Halimah said the flight circled above Melaka a few times and eventually returned to KLIA where she switched flights and arrived safely in Tawau at about 9.50pm.
She also praised the pilots over their handling of the situation and for keeping all the passengers safe.