SIBU, April 9 — A total of 48 scheduled arrival and departure flights at the Sibu Airport have been cancelled today following the skidding of a Malaysia Airlines MH2718 flight upon landing last night.
Sibu Airport manager Zainuddin Abu Nasir said out of the total cancelled flights, 28 flights were MASwings, 16 AirAsia flights and four Malaysia Airlines Berhad flights.
He said the flights involved are to and from Johor Baru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Bintulu, Miri and Kuching with 3,787 passengers affected by the cancellations.
“The airlines involved have made the decision to cancel their flights.
“We expect the operations at the Sibu Airport to return to normal by 8pm once works to remove the aircraft is completed,” he told reporters at a media conference here today.
The aircraft from Kuala Lumpur, which was carrying 61 passengers and six crew members, skidded upon landing during a heavy downpour in the 10.17pm incident here last night.
According to him, an investigation team from the Air Accident Investigation Bureau of the Transport Ministry in Putrajaya would arrive here today to conduct an assessment of the accident and determine methods to divert the aircraft from the runway.
They would be taking a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bintulu and proceed to Sibu by land, he said.
He said special equipment would be brought in from Kuching for that purpose. “So far no landing or departure involving flight passengers are allowed at the Sibu Airport until works to remove the MH2718 aircraft is completed,” he said. He said, however, helicopters are allowed to make landings as these did not require a runway.
The cause of the incident involving the Boeing 737-800 aircraft could only be ascertained after the overall investigation is completed, he said.
In the accident all on board had safely disembarked via two slide rafts and later brought to the emergency hall. No injuries were reported so far.
A passenger, who declined to be identified, said the aircraft was facing bad weather which had forced the pilot to hover in the air for about half an hour.
“The pilot tried to land at 10pm last night but failed and only landed on the second attempt and we had to use the slide raft to exit,” he said. — Bernama
