It takes 50 minutes to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, but for one woman recently, it took two days.

She boarded her Scoot flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Dec 28 evening and after a series of unfortunate circumstances, Stomp contributor Annah landed at Changi Airport only two days later on a different airline.

Her original Scoot flight TR469 was scheduled to depart at 7.10pm on Dec 28, but a technical fault was detected.

“We remained on the aircraft until they asked us to deplane at about 9pm,” recounted the Stomp contributor.

“The new scheduled departure was an hour later. So we just hung around in the airport. They boarded us again at 10.30pm, but they couldn’t take off due to same technical issues

“Around 12:15am, they declared the flight cancelled and offered to two options: cancel and get 100 per cent refund or wait for them to work on hotels and a new flight.”

She said there were many children and elderly people on the flight and the passengers started getting upset as the ground staff were not providing information such as the time of the new flight.

“We opted to cancel and managed to find our way back to the arrival hall and collected our bags,” said the Stomp contributor.

“There were no instructions or an escort. People were just leaving and walking through the airport on their own.

“We checked into our own choice of hotels. All flights were full that day. Scoot said they would issue a cancellation letter so that we could make a claim through our insurance.”

She told Stomp she finally returned to Singapore on Dec 30 afternoon on Malaysia Airlines.

Other flight TR469 passengers have posted about their experience online.

Calling it his “worst flight ever”, Facebook user Steven Kang posted on Dec 29 at 1.17am: “The flight was delayed for one hour. When we finally embarked, we were in the plane for one hour plus without ventilation. When some people were suffocating badly, they let the passengers disembark.

“We waited another one hour plus before being invited to embark. Once again, the plane could not start and the ventilation was malfunctioning. We were asked to disembark for the second time.

“It is 40 minutes after midnight and I have been stuck in KLIA for four hours plus. All these while, not a single staff offered water or food.”

PHOTO: Stomp

Another passenger commented: “It was a nightmare.

“Blessing in disguised though! Made a couple of friends. Also I think everyone knew everyone in the flight since we are stuck together for almost 20 hours.” [sic]

In response to a Stomp query, a spokesperson for the Scoot said that flight TR469 detected a technical fault before departure on Dec 28.

“As spares were required to be uplifted to Kuala Lumpur, TR469 could not be recovered in time,” said the spokesperson.

“Affected customers were provided with accommodation, transport, and refreshments. The flight subsequently departed Kuala Lumpur for Singapore at 4.42pm and landed at 6.13pm on Dec 29.”

So if the Stomp contributor had not cancelled and opted to wait for the new flight instead, she would have made it back to the Republic a day earlier.

The spokesperson added: “Scoot sincerely apologises for the inconvenience to our customers. The safety of our customers and crew is our top priority, and we will continue to assist affected customers, where required.”

ALSO READ: ‘Hard to breathe’: Scoot flight from KL to Singapore delayed twice in a day over technical issue

This article was first published in Stomp. Permission required for reproduction.

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