Heat, anxiety, and a whole lot of sweat are the inevitable outcomes from a non-air conditioned flight. While most of us take airplane AC for granted, passengers of a recent Super Air Jet flight from Bali to Jakarta went through the horrid ordeal, prompting an official apology from the low cost carrier.
Flight IU-737 took off from Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport on Tuesday at 5:55pm, carrying 179 passengers. As the plane reached an altitude of 30,000 feet, its air conditioning system reportedly malfunctioned, and the AC remained switched off for the entire duration of the 1 hour and 50 minute flight to Jakarta.
Footage emerged soon after, showing sweltering conditions inside the cabin. Amid the humidity, passengers can be seen fanning themselves throughout the flight and gasping for air. By the end of the flight, even small children were drenched in sweat.
Super Air Jet apologized for the incident, but stressed that no irregularities in the plane were found during pre-flight checks.
Nonetheless, the Ministry of Transportation says it is reprimanding Super Air Jet and urged them to improve their maintenance and safety procedures to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. The ministry also called on the airline to launch an internal investigation to determine what caused the AC malfunction.
“[In light of this incident], and ahead of the Eid holiday season, we will ramp up airplane inspections,” Air Transportation Director General Maria Kristi Endah Murni wrote in a statement published today.
The Eid holiday, during which millions of Indonesians are going to travel to their hometowns, is expected to start on April 21.
