Yet another Lion Air flight reportedly experienced a technical issue, just weeks after the Oct. 29 crash of the JT-610 flight that killed all 189 on board.
As reported by Detik, yesterday, Lion Air Flight JT-309 was supposed to take off from Medan’s Kualanamu Airport to Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 6:40 pm, but it was delayed after passengers complained that the cabin air conditioning system wasn’t switched on during boarding.
Not only that, passengers said it appeared that the plane’s engine switched off entirely just as it was about to taxi for take off.
“All of a sudden the engine and lights switched off. We didn’t know what was going on. As [the plane] was pushing back, suddenly the plane died like a car with battery problems,” a passenger named Erdi said.
Dozens of passengers protested and demanded to return to the departure lounge.
The incident was confirmed by Lion Air Group spokesperson Danang Mandala Prihantoro in a written statement today.
“The boarding process was already done and the aircraft was still on the apron when the Ground Power Unit (GPU) went down at 8.07 pm, causing an error to the plane’s electrical system,” Danang said, as quoted by Kumparan.
He also confirmed there were 24 passengers that asked to get off the plane and return to the departure lounge at Kualanamu Airport.
“We facilitated all 24 passengers’ request for a refund, transfer, or reschedule,” Danang said, and stated that their company paid compensation to the passengers for the delay.
Technicians changed the GPU and the aircraft was able to operate normally, resuming its flight to Jakarta at 9.27 pm.
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