Tawau-bound flight turns back to KLIA after encountering ‘technical issues’

 

Malaysia Airlines says the pilot decided to fly the plane back to Kuala Lumpur in the interest of passenger safety.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines has confirmed that Flight MH2664 to Tawau yesterday turned back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) after it encountered “technical issues”.

The national carrier said that as a precautionary measure, the pilot made the decision to return to Kuala Lumpur in the interest of passenger safety.

“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,” it said in a statement.

It said the plane landed safely at KLIA at 5.03pm.

This comes after a passenger on the 2.30pm flight posted on social media that about half an hour after take-off, the B737-800 took a “sharp dive” when it was at 31,000ft to 24,000ft “in a matter of seconds”, based on her checks on the Flight Radar application.

She said she “floated” out of her seat because her seat belt was unfastened and the seat belt signs were turned off at that point.

“The plane was unstable for about 10 minutes and took another dive, but it wasn’t as bad as the first drop,” said Halimah Nasoha in a Facebook post.

She said other passengers were screaming and crying, fearing for their lives.

Halimah said the flight made a U-turn, circled above Melaka a few times and eventually returned to KLIA where she switched flights. She arrived safely in Tawau at about 9.50pm. - FMT