NOVEMBER 17 — The whole country was talking about it last weekend. By now everyone has seen that video showing a huge deluge of water falling from the ceiling of KLIA’s departure or check-in hall.
KLIA has a natural waterfall which rivals Jewel at Changi! Hey, check out the brand new shower at KLIA!
Mea culpa. My friends and I had quite a few laughs too.
But taking a step back, I think many of us are too harsh on KLIA and Malaysia Airport Holdings (MAHB). Without denying that the KLIA “shower” is embarrassing, we should consider a few things.
One, numerous airports around the world face flooding and/or leakages, usually (to no one’s surprise) during thunderstorms.
JFK in New York was flooded during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and had to be closed for a few days; even this year some delays happened because of flash floods.
Leonard da Vinci in Rome saw flights grounded in 2014 because its terminals were underwater as a result of storm flooding.
Kansai at Osaka saw more than 3,000 passengers grounded in 2018 from Typhoon Jebi.
Point is, if we’re going to ridicule KLIA for a water leakage it basically means we should pass judgment on practically every major airport situated in stormy or flood-prone areas.
We should, in fact, be amazed that we haven’t received more reports of KLIA leakages given how every year the airport is battered by heavy rains.
To maybe use a bad analogy, it’s like a married couple having a bad fight or a glamour car getting into an accident.
I mean, yeah it’s a bad thing and the issue should be resolved but no one who’s ever been married or driven a car before would bat an eyelid.
Consider too that last Friday’s water-fiasco was identified and the problem resolved within 1.5 hours.
No one was hurt, no flight was delayed and basically the only major damage was to KLIA’s PR and optics.
I can assure you whoever was managing Miami International Airport in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma hit would happily take those hits instead of having the airport flooded and closed for more than two days.
Of course, I’m not saying the problem shouldn’t be addressed (obviously the leakage absolutely must be plugged). But we should recognise the “shock and awe” reactions to the leakage video to be disproportionate to the reality of airports.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that KLIA was opened in 1998. Within these 27 years there have been no major disruptions caused by storms or floods. Only the occasional leaking and (minor) flooding.
So, to sum up this brief “defence” of KLIA:
1. Water leakages happen in airports all over the world (even the best like Changi, Heathrow, Dubai, etc.) – just ask DeepSeek for more details.
2. The November 14 “waterfall” in KLIA didn’t cause much (if any) disruption so it’s already very benign and demonstrates some measure of resilience (especially for a 27-year-old airport); MAHB should even be commended for settling everything within 1.5 hours.
3. While it’s obviously “fun” to mock KLIA, such ridicule misses the larger context and reality of airports situated in storm-prone areas.
