Now finally back to the Gold Coast after nearly 40 hours of being stranded, AirAsia passengers on flight D7206 are saying AirAsia’s slogan is excruciatingly true: “Now everyone can fly xtra long”.
The flight destined to Coolangatta with over 300 passengers, departed from KL at 9:40 pm on Monday, but diverted to Bali due to a medical emergency with a passenger. Two hours later, the flight departed from Bali anew, but was diverted again when a second passenger had a medical emergency.
Then of course pilots exceeded their flying hours so a new crew had to be called in.
Things got complicated when frustrated passengers eager to get home without AirAsia’s help booked separate flights out of Bali. It seems like this should have been fine, but under Indonesian aviation law, the amount of people coming into the country on the diverted flight needed to be the same amount as the number on the departing flight. Good thing no one with AirAsia seemed to know about this regulation at the time of the flight and if they didn’t, it sure wasn’t clearly communicated with flight D7206’s passengers.
To make matters worse, stranded passengers complained that they had to go through immigration and buy visas, while Australia’s 7 News reported that one Iraqi citizen on the flight, Zaid Shaheedy, was immediately detained upon landing, explaining that under Indonesian law, it’s forbidden for Iraqis to take a visa on arrival.
The complaints didn’t stop there. Passengers vented on social media, saying that AirAsia’s service was not helpful in providing assistance, even though the airline claims to have provided meals and hotels.
