Another MAS plane forced to turn back

A Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plane on a flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Incheon International Airport, South Korea was reported to have turned back early this morning.

According to the Flightradar24 website, the flight using an Airbus A330-323 aircraft took off from KLIA at 12.01am before turning around and landing safely at KLIA a few hours later.

According to information on the global flight tracker website, flight MH66 was supposed to take off at 11.30pm yesterday.

In a statement, MAS said the flight was turned back due to a technical issue with its hydraulic system.

“All passengers have been accommodated at a hotel and the flight has been rescheduled to operate as MH66D, departing at 8pm today.

“The return leg, MH67D, has also been rescheduled to depart at 5.10am (local Incheon time) on Sept 3.

“The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew remain our highest priority,” MAS said.

CAAM to probe

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) chief executive officer Norazman Mahmud said his agency had also been informed of the incident.

“The airline (MAS) has given a preliminary report to CAAM. However, detailed information will only be available after a full investigation.

“All the crew and passengers of the fight are safe,” he said when contacted.

This is the latest incident involving MAS flights being forced to turn back or be diverted in less than a month.

On Aug 22, flight MH152 which departed from Kuala Lumpur at 2.23pm bound for Madinah, Saudi Arabia had to turn around due to a pressurisation issue and landed back at KLIA at 5.22pm.

The day before that, flight MH386, which also used an Airbus A330-300 aircraft, departed from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai at 9.14pm and reportedly had to turn back to KLIA after flying for about 70 minutes, due to cabin pressure problems.

On Aug 20, flight MH128 from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur had to make an emergency stop at Alice Springs Airport, Australia due to engine problems at approximately 4.35am local time.

On Aug 4, a flight MH156 carrying 259 Umrah pilgrims bound for Jeddah turned back to KLIA due to technical problems shortly after take off.

- Bernama

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