POH, Dec 16 — The sinkhole controversy at the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport has mired into a blame game between the airport management and the state Minerals and Geoscience Department.

The Malay Mail had reported on Friday there were sinkholes at the side of the runway and this was one of the reasons why the country’s newest airline, Flying Fox Airways, was not allowed to land its Boeing aircraft there.

Airport manager Puteh Ramli reserved comment on the fiasco surrounding the recently upgraded airport. 

“These are geoscience matters so it’s best to refer to the Perak Minerals and Geoscience Department,” he said.

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However, the department’s principal geophysicist, Azhari Ahmad, said the airport engaged private consultants to survey the sinkholes.

“We had a discussion with the airport management some time ago but were informed they had engaged consultants to look into the matter. It is unfair to now refer the matter to us,” he said.

It remains unclear if the sinkholes appeared before or after the RM42 million airport renovation,  which included a 200m extension of the 1,789m runway. The extension was to accommodate larger aircraft like the Boeing 737-800 and Airbus A320.

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Efforts to contact Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi yesterday proved futile.

Abdul Aziz had said earlier the sinkholes were among the reasons why the airport had not met safety guidelines for bigger planes. 

As such, Flying Fox was unable to land its Boeing 168-seater 737-400 for its Ipoh-Medan flights, scheduled to begin last Friday.

The airline insisted it had obtained landing approval from the Department of Civil Aviation on Oct 30 and received landing time slots on Nov 15.

This led it to sell some 17,000 tickets for the route for which it is now making refunds.