'Hard to breathe': Scoot flight from KL to Singapore delayed twice in a day over technical issue

Passengers on board a Scoot flight scheduled to depart from Kuala Lumpur on Saturday (Dec 28) reportedly had to disembark the aircraft twice due to a technical issue.

Jason Tan, who was on board flight TR469, told 8world that the plane had yet to take off for Singapore an hour after its scheduled departure time of 7.10pm.

"The air-con was not turned on, and it was hard to breathe," he said. 

Tan said the crew then announced that the plane had encountered a technical issue and asked all passengers to disembark.

According to him, everyone was allowed to board again an hour later, and informed that the plane would take off at 11.30pm.

At about midnight, however, the aircraft was still on the tarmac, and passengers had to disembark again because of the technical issue.

Describing the situation as "chaotic", Tan said that passengers were given two choices - either cancel their tickets or wait for Scoot to arrange for their accommodation and the next flight to Singapore.

"The Scoot staff said that the airline will refund passengers who cancel their tickets, but there was no elaboration on compensation," he said.

Steven Kang, who was also on flight TR469, recounted his experience in a Facebook post on early Sunday morning, calling it his "worst flight ever".

Kang said that there was no ventilation on the plane, and some were "suffocating badly" while waiting for take-off.

The passenger, who opted not to cancel his ticket, updated in a comment that the next flight scheduled by Scoot was supposed to depart from KL at 1pm on Sunday, but only took off at about 5pm.

"I took 23 hours for what is supposed to be a one-hour flight," he wrote.

Responding to AsiaOne's queries, Scoot said on Monday that a technical fault was detected prior to the aircraft's scheduled departure at 7.10pm on Saturday.

"As spares were required to be uplifted to Kuala Lumpur, TR469 originally departing on Dec 28 could not be recovered in time," said the budget airline.

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.

"Scoot sincerely apologises for the inconvenience to our customers," said the carrier.

"The safety of our customers and crew is our top priority, and we will continue to assist affected customers, where required."

AsiaOne has reached out to Kang for more information.

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lim.kewei@asiaone.com