Unspecified technical failure forces Macau bound AirAsia plane to return to Bangkok

After the fatal crash of a flight bound for Singapore,  Air­Asia continues to be affected by a string of unusual incidents. The latest occurred on Sunday, when a Bangkok-Macau flight was forced to return to Don Mueang Airport due to an unspecified technical failure.
The Times interviewed one of the passengers aboard Flight FD766, which left the Thai capital Sunday at 6.30 p.m. carrying 132 passengers and a total of 6 pilots and crew and was scheduled to arrive in Macau Airport at 9.55 p.m.
Technical problems were noticed as soon as the plane departed. According to Gonçalo Lobo Pinheiro, 35, the plane “seemed to lack power” from takeoff.
“At the same time, the plane made a funny noise and wasn’t 100 percent stable. I got the impression that the plane didn’t reach the altitude needed to continue with the trip. One hour after the flight started the captain said that we should return to Bangkok due to a technical failure,” Mr Pinheiro, a Macau-based photographer working for a local publishing company, told the Times.
After the captain’s announcement, there was no panic amongst the passengers but “some tension was felt.” The airplane returned to Bangkok and Mr Pinheiro continued to have the perception that the plane was flying “with shortage of power and with the motors stopping.” The landing was “soft” and it seemed that the Airbus A 320-200 was “gliding,” although our source says that he could hear the motors working.
After landing, passengers were swiftly directed to another plane (also an Airbus A 320-200, but a newer model) without major loss of time. They were not informed about the specific cause of the problems and the second flight took place without incident. Gonçalo Lobo Pinheiro claims that the time they spent going around between the “junk plane” [the first one, that he deemed “old”] and the transfer for another plane amounted to a two-hour delay when landing in Macau.
Contacted by the Times, Air
Asia confirmed the incident. According to a Thai AirAsia communications team statement, “a technical fault was detected” upon departure.
“In the interest of utmost safety, the pilot decided to return the aircraft to Don Mueang Airport for inspection by airport engineers. The airline provided a new aircraft to complete the flight to Macau, which departed Don Mueang Airport at 20.00 hrs and arrived in Macau Airport at 23.25 hrs (local time).  The total delay of the flight has been calculated at 1 hour 30 minutes,” the statement read. Thai AirAsia also apologized for any inconveniences caused.
The incident comes as rescue teams continue to fight bad weather while combing the Java Sea for bodies and wreckage of the Airbus A 320 that crashed Dec. 28, killing all 162 passengers and crew on board. The plane was traveling from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, and Singapore.
More recently, another incident halted an AirAsia flight departing from Surabaya. The Bandung-bound plane engine failed just before it was preparing to takeoff from Juanda International Airport in the Indonesian city, the Straits Times reported. The incident horrified passengers, many of whom refused to resume the flight, media reports indicated.
AirAsia, began operations in 2001 and quickly became one of the region’s leaders in low-cost air travel. The company has not experienced any other crashes before Dec. 28. The Associated Press reported recently that AirAsia is “widely considered a benchmark for safety and professionalism.”