KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 — Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) woes continued when a flight by its subsidiary, Firefly, had to turn back to Penang after departing for Kota Baru this morning due to a problem with its landing gear.
Flight FY1002/MH9948 had been in the air for just 15 minutes after taking off shortly after 7am, before its pilots brought it back to Penang International Airport.
“The aircraft’s landing gear was unable to retract after being airborne,” the budget carrier’s marketing and communications department said in statement
“This was a normal landing, therefore Airport Fire Rescue Services was not required to be deployed,” said the statement.
The flight landed safely at 7.30am, the airline explained, adding that the flight’s 64 passengers and four crew members disembarked before boarding the same plane again after the glitch was rectified.
“FY1002/MH9948 departed from Penang at 8.50am... and arrived safely in Kota Baru at 9.50am,” it added.
Firefly’s parent, MAS, has been the microscope after a Beijing-bound flight, MH370, disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board.
On Monday, MAS Flight MH192, bound for Bangalore, India, was forced turned back to Kuala Lumpur after it was discovered that a tyre had burst on take-off.
It has now been 48 days since a multinational hunt was mounted for MH370, believed to be submerged at the bottom of the southern Indian Ocean, some 2,000km west of Perth, Australia.
There has so far not been any debris found related to the plane despite a long list of possible leads discovered over the past month-and-a-half.
