MH B772 Involved In Freak Fall Over Australia

KUALA LUMPUR: Pandemonium broke out when a Malaysian Airline aircraft plunged 200m from the air, just 40 minutes after takeoff from the Perth international airport, forcing the plane to turn back and make an emergency landing.

The Kuala Lumpur bound MH124 on Monday, with 177 passengers on board, was said to have experienced engine problems.

According to the passengers on board the Boeing 777-200, most of them panicked and a flight attendant prayed.

One of the passengers who called The Star from Perth yesterday said many of them were crying and praying aloud while others held on tight to their seats when the plane started going down.

An Australian man who identified himself as Sam said the pilot’s superb handling of the emergency was what probably saved their lives.

“The plane was just going down rapidly and I saw all the passengers screaming and crying. Many were praying.

“The drop was easily about 200m. The pilot cried too when he came to see us after he landed the plane safely,'' he said.

Sam congratulated Capt Norhisham Kassim for handling the situation well, adding that the passengers broke into hearty applause soon after the plane touched down.

“I will never forget the 27-minute flight back to Perth after the incident,” he said.

When contacted at his hotel in Perth yesterday, all Capt Norhisham could say was: “Alhamdullilah (Praise be to God).”

He said he had given his statement to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) on the incident, adding that he was bound by company regulations not to talk to the media when the incident was being probed.

Capt Norhisham returned to Kuala Lumpur as a passenger together with the others late last night.

Meanwhile, another passenger told ABC radio in Australia that the passengers panicked after one flight attendant dropped a tray of drinks and another began praying.

Kim Holst, who had never flown before, said the plane began shuddering violently and dropping more than a hundred metres at a time for about 90 seconds.

Staff appealed to passengers to turn off all electrical equipment as they interferred with the systems, Holst said.

“When a flight attendant dropped an entire tray of drinks and began crawling on his hands and knees back to his seat and the other flight attendant began praying, that’s when most of us began to take it a bit more seriously,” he added.

Other people on board the flight began screaming, he said.

“It was my first flight and I actually didn’t realise it was that big a deal, until I started looking around at the people who had travelled a bit and they were all clutching their seats ... they were like saying ‘oh my God, this is not right',” Holst said.

A West Australian police spokesman said the pilots reported instrument problems and a full emergency response was waiting for the aircraft when it returned.

When contacted, the ATSB in Canberra said investigations into the incident had commenced and a preliminary report would be out in 30 days.

“We are now at a very early stage of investigations but we are aware that the crew encountered some technical problems onboard the aircraft about 40 minutes after taking off from Perth,” Julian Walsh, an ATSB transport safety investigator, said.

He confirmed that ATSB officials interviewed Capt Norhisham yesterday.

Asked whether the environment could have caused the incident, he said: “At this moment, there does not seem to be anything pointing to the incident being caused by the environment.”

He said the plane’s black box arrived in Canberra yesterday morning and data was being downloaded.

“I would not be able to tell how long it would take to complete investigations,” he said, adding that ATSB was working closely with Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

Upon completion of investigations, he said ATSB would make recommendations to MAS if it felt that there were safety issues which needed attention.

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