Lion Air Group has faced one PR disaster after another following the fatal crash of flight JT-610 in late October. Just a week after the tragic incident, another of its planes was delayed after its wing accidentally collided with a lamp post at Bengkulu airport during taxi and they’re in the headlines again today for another incident.
Today, Wings Air (a subsidiary airline under the Lion Air Group) flight IW-1206 flying from Makassar to Kolaka in Southeast Sulawesi had to turn around and land back at its origin point one hour after it had departed from the South Sulawesi capital.
Information about the incident went viral after Chandra Tauphan Ansar, entrepreneur and husband of celebrity Nina Zatulini, posted a series of stories on Instagram about the flight, which he said was really shaky despite the clear weather.
The incident was confirmed by Lion Air Group spokesperson Danang Mandala Prihantoro in a written statement today.
“To ensure passenger safety and comfort, the pilot decided to return to base because of a technical issue that needed to be checked,” he wrote, as picked up by Detik. The statement did not elaborate any further on the exact nature of the technical issue.
The flight initially took off at 8 am and the pilot made the request to return to Makassar just 20 minutes into the flight. However, due to airport traffic, the plane only managed to land in Makassar at 9 am.
All of the passengers were later flown in a replacement plane, which arrived in Kolaka just after noon.
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