KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 ― Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has waded into the controversy surrounding a pilot who asked passengers to pray on a flight, saying he had routinely prayed before performing surgery.

Dr Noor Hisham recalled a difficult surgery in which he had to split the patient’s sternum to remove an advanced recurrent follicular thyroid cancer, where the anaesthetist had given up and he had been close to doing so, but the patient managed to walk home after one week.

"The important lesson is to start an operation with a prayer and explain to the patient and family the nature of the operation and hence create an expectation,” Dr Noor Hisham posted on Facebook last night.

"We should assure them that we will do our best and ask them to pray too, regardless of their race or religion. In Islam we are taught to do our best and then 'tawakkal to Allah’,” he added, as he shared a surgeon’s prayer.

The pilot of AirAsia Flight D7 237 came under fire for asking passengers to pray during the rocky flight last Sunday that was forced to return to Perth, Australia, due to engine problems. The plane landed safely without incident.