VOXPOP 'Even a couple of seconds could have caused a monumental air disaster as planes would already have taken the cue to land or take off.'

Minister admits two-hour air traffic radar failure

Timothy: Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha, your answer is very vague. When the main supply at the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre fails, the stand-by generator should starts to kick in.

If this also fails, the battery bank should take over for a minimum time for someone to start the stand-by generator manually.

Something very serious is very wrong somewhere. Please do not take this lightly. More important is, what steps is taken to rectify it?

The Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) runway lighting blackout answer is also very vague.

There should be three different cables supply the lightings alternately. Even if one cable fails, the other two cables should still provide two-thirds of the lightings.

It looks like all three cables failed. This again is a very serious fault.

Geronimo: Forget that it was a two-hour delay because the back-up system "did not kick in" after a power trip.

Even a couple of seconds could have caused a monumental air disaster as planes would already have taken the cue to land or take off.

What if the plane is running short of fuel and have to circle in the air for the system to come back on, which was uncertain at that time.

Here's another minister who should have resigned before a real disaster takes place and lives are lost.

Onyourtoes: Kong, seriously you should resign. What kind of nonsensical answers did you give? When the KL Air Traffic Control Centre was down for two hours, the reason you gave was it was due to power failure and the back-up system has failed to kick in.

That answer, I think, even an idiot would be able to give. What we are asking is why the back-up has failed to kick in? Who was responsible for the back-up, and did your men periodically check on the back-up?

Then you said the faulty runway lights incident at the KKIA which brought the airport to a standstill on Oct 26 was caused by cables which were not placed properly.Again, that was an idiotic answer.

What we are asking is why the cables were not properly placed. Who was responsible for laying and maintaining the cables?

Odin: The air traffic control system was installed by a company in which the son of a senior Umno politician holds significant equity.

Now we ask, which company owned by the son of which minister installed the totally unreliable power back-up system?

AirAsia's Tony Fernandes becomes MP's whipping boy

Swipenter: AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes is now a bad boy in the eyes of Umno. Maybe they are trying to clip his wings and that is why he is moving his operations to Indonesia.

We can all see why Malaysia is under performing its full potential. If you are real good but of the wrong colour or wrong camp, they will try to make your life "miserable."

And what do you do about it? Slowly put your eggs in different baskets just in case. Apart from the big boys, even SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) are doing that.

Slowly but surely the hollowing out of businesses are happening. Let the greedy ones grab them all and see what they can do to make this country great again.

Not Confused: All this bile and venom against Fernandes because he has made AirAsia a roaring success when compared with the inefficient MAS (Malaysia Airlines System).

This is typical BN mentality. You only have to compare the volume of travellers at both Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT).

LCCT is overflowing with people every day, every hour, and yet when I go to KLIA, it is almost like a ghost town. How the commercial tenants at KLIA make a living is a mystery with such a small number of passing travellers.

OMG!!: Kinabatangan MP Bung Mokhtar Radin, blame it on your party and your political bosses.

Fernandez and Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, like many others, are crony capitalists. They oil you and your party's machinery. Certainly they would expect something in return.

But to blame Fernandes for all the MAS woes is not fair. I am not his greatest fan, but your political bosses are to be blamed squarely. They have allowed crony capitalists to milk MAS and succumb to the unfair demands of the militant MAS unions.

LittleGiant: No problem, Bung Mokhtar. Air Asia can shift its entire operations to Indonesia. It will be a total demise of the tourism industry in Malaysia. And I am sure Umno-BN will be happy and thankful to Bung Mokhtar for all the nonsense uttered by him.

Bobby Cheng: MAS service is fast deteriorating over the years. I recently traveled by MAS, Thai Airways and Etihad on a business trip.

MAS inflight service was unfortunately miles behind other airlines. Poor food catering, small old planes, crammed seats, passengers going to the loo having a hard time passing the narrow aisle when food was served.

Bung Mokhtar should blame former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his crony Tajudin Ramli for the downfall of MAS. MAS was doing very well until Tajudin took over, no thanks to Mahathir.

AirAsia, though not the best, but their new airbuses are more spacious and comfortable than MAS 737-300. As a passenger, I can testified that as I just returned from holiday in Japan using AirAsia. Bung Mokhtar, wake up!

Anonymous_3fe5: I saw Mahathir's face painted on an AirAsia plane with the words "A true Malaysian, Dr M" next to it at Bangkok's Don Muang airport couple weeks ago.

That made me want to puke.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .