Heroes of AirAsia X Perth Incident
Heroes of AirAsia X Perth Incident
Three days ago, AirAsia X flight D7237 makes headline as technical issues force the plane to turn back from Perth. The plane carrying 359 passengers landed without incident. The passengers endured 90 minutes of plane shaking while turning back to Perth and the captain of the flight (Captain Ismail) announced this ‘I hope you all say a prayer, I’ll be saying a prayer too, and let’s hope that we all get back home safely’.
While most of the passengers praised the captain of the flight for bringing them back safely, some people decided to criticise the pilot for not being professional enough due to the ‘prayers’ announcement.
To be frank, it was heroic for Captain Ismail to keep everyone calm and safe during that incident. It is easy to criticise but why is it so hard to praise? At the end of the day, the captain kept everyone safe.
Thankfully, Group CEO of AirAsia Tony Fernandes posted a strong gratitude message to the Captain and the crews on his Facebook Page.
“Super proud of all my crew led by Captain Ibrahim. And first officer Vincent and Purser Ruijaruuneglai who did a superb heroic job bringing back everyone safely. Airasia don’t make engines and all airlines have engine failures. But when it does happen it takes great pilots and great leadership in times of crisis. I’m beaming with pride. From videos you can see all guests calm , and from the many emails and whatsapp I got , the Captains announcements kept everyone calm. If it was a full service airline the pilot would have been a hero. But because it’s a low cost carrier press and so called experts make wild accusations and forget the heroics of our crew. I want to thank the many Australians who have praised airasia for all we have done despite all the adverse press. Adelaide here we come.”
We are frequent flyers and we fly on AirAsia X from time to time. Thus, we just flew back from Haneda Tokyo two weeks ago and we have no problems at all. Do you know that most AirAsia X planes are quite new? In fact, most of the AirAsia X’s AirBus A330-300 fleet is less than five years old if we are not mistaken (please correct us if we are wrong). Thus, all of the AirBus A300-300 is well maintained from time to time (sources from our friends from AirAsia X).
Let us share the positive news rather than negative news. Let us praise the heroes of AirAsia X, Captain Ibrahim, first officer Vincent and Purser Ruijaruuneglai and the crews for their heroic efforts.
