One of the best ways to make sure your flight successfully takes off the runway is … to not say the word “bomb”.
Malindo Air Flight OD1158 was scheduled to take off from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang yesterday and bound for Penang, when it was forced to stay grounded for several hours while authorities investigated a perceived bomb threat.
The captain of Flight OD1158 was alerted of a possible bomb threat during the boarding procedure, and following standard protocol, alerted the control tower and the authorities, prompting the grounding.
The aircraft, which was scheduled to take off at 3.40pm, was taxied to a distant bay so that passengers could safe disembark. The passengers were then quarantined as part of standard security procedures.
Petaling Jaya police chief ACP Azmi Abu Kassim told Bernama that the bomb threat alert was triggered when one of the passengers uttered the word “bomb” to one of the crew members during the inspection of boarding passes.
He said during the inspection, the man showed his boarding pass to the crew and asked: “Kenapa nak periksa sekali lagi, bukan ada bom pun,” (“Why do you need to check again, it’s not like there is a bomb here.”)
“After being alerted by the airline, our Canine Unit and Bomb Squad were rushed to the scene to carry out thorough inspection on the plane, but found nothing.
“The Malindo Airline crew concerned who was asked to identify the passenger who uttered the word also failed to remember,” he said, adding that the police were still carrying out thorough probe on the incident to prevent untoward incidents.
