"Climb high, climb far, your goal is the sky", that was supposedly every flight should be but not with D7207, and yes indeed, I was one of the passengers in the plane.
I had a lot of questions ever since touched down, and the story was repeatedly told till writing in the blog to tell the world is the best option. Taking off from Auckland, there was nothing wrong with the flight and smoothly landed in Queensland to drop and pick up passengers. As soon as it took off, you can hear an off sound from the engine and you feel the plane fell back after taking off, the sound playing in my mind, Sh*tty plane, must be an old one, as there are some airplanes like that, but hey, this is the same aircraft from Auckland, we didn't change any, but only spending an hour went through an awful and long screening process in Queensland airport. Soon the sound stopped playing, you can hear explosion "booom" and surely followed by "OH MY GOD" screamed out, and second times in about 20 secs with the same scream "OH MY GOD". I was in the middle row, hardly to see anything, but the guy next to me, "look!! there is fire on the wing". Woo hoo, I guess most of people are starting panicking including the stewardess that running in the hall back and forward. The flame was only for seconds but that terrified the whole aircraft, or maybe the back end only, soon after that you can hear the pilot on speaker phone "please stay calm, it is under control and ... he stopped .... please follow the instructions of cabin crew", do you think we can calm down??? amazingly yes we did, but you can hear sobs, cries and prays around you. Maybe unlike the other Airasia flight Perth KL, the pilot didn't say "I hope you all say a prayer; I will be saying a prayer too and let's hope we all get back home safely". We were lucky as the flight have just taken off (already took off), so not yet too far from the land. Around 5 minutes, not sure as every minute is like ages, you heard another announcement,"We are going to land at Brisbane International airport in 10 minutes, Australia immigration is very cooperative and again...he stopped....please follow the instructions of cabin crew". I guess he just lost some words in between, and finally, supposedly in 10 as announced, we landed in Brisbane International airport, we were lucky as tp go back to Queensland, such a small airport might not able to handle this situation, you can see exactly like movie, you were surrounding by fire rescue trucks and police cars, a few rounds in the airport itself to make sure all are safe and no harm before approaching the terminal.
The drama is still continuing:
1. Airasia has no permit to land in Brisbane, I had bad experience previously with Tiger air where we are not allowed to enter Danang while we made emergency landing on the way to Hanoi on bad weather, so will we fly again with the same aircraft, no no
2. Most of countries need visa to enter Australia, will they allow most of us to enter without visa, I don't think so...it's Oz.
Waiting is very boring, thirsty, but empathy from the cabin crews are appreciated, we were given free mineral water even we offered to pay. After those passengers from Queensland allowed to enter, followed by us who flew from Auckland, haha...welcome to Oz, the visa processing is hell long, I was lucky to have 3 years multiple entry visa, but I was with a friend that doesn't have and guess what, took almost 3 hours to wait for visa processing, and for Indonesian and Thai, we were last to be processed for 7 days tourist visa, no one were left but got out, the hall were full, oh no.....asking airasia crews, they have no idea what the arrangement. "Sorry, this is not our base", well that was not the answer I was looking for.
Thanks to third party contractor engaged by Airasia or forced to engaged by Australia government (maybe), as looking at the bad arrangement in their base in KL, they were very helpful to find hotels and shuttle arrangements to hotels nearby, I got the Pullman Hotel (in lobby) as we stayed in Mercure side which the contractions are still happening, so sleeping from 4 am with that sounds are not helping, although we got a beautiful room to ourselves.
The breakfast buffet was entertaining, sorry not to be able to show the lunch photos as we also got up to 35 AUD worth of lunch in the restaurant
After 2 hours check in process and an hour delay, we finally boarded with the different aircraft (thanks God) to KL, in full service flight (dinner and water), without knowing what arrangement for our connection back home or for others their next destination, we were just ask to check in the transfer hall, served by an arrogant, rude, and no empathy ground staff in THEIR BASE, KL, found out that our flight (supposed to be 7am originally) is 9.50am, and he just said (with I don't care face) if you don't want maybe you will not get today's flight, and to be honest, I was about to slap his arrogant face, sorry to not be able to show his face as I was asked to delete his picture as he said "Try to take picture and I will report to police to send you to jail", and I merely yelled you may try and let's see, I wasn't afraid of his treat but more to not able to get my boarding pass. And it is not right to upload video of other families' drama without their concern because they got next day flight but waiting for uncertain arrangement of hotel and transfer.
Given option to clear immigration and get our own baggage or get it transferred by their staff. We were very tired but also worry that our checked baggage will not reach the same time, but we just decided to let them do the transfer, I made sure a few times that baggage have to fly with me and you can see the annoyed face saying I KNOWWW!!!! And oh, their service is not standard, we were promised voucher for breakfast but we have go back to ask for it and that arrogant staff said you can only have it outside bla bla bla, what the hell? saved by the next guy again with 6 vouchers of 15RM to spend in the departure area.
It was not the end of the drama, got back to Jakarta and found out our checked baggage were still in KL, pictures shown by the lost and found staff, hundreds of bag were there in KL, can't imagine the face of those guys have connecting flight to Bangkok, Bali etc. After continuous calls to lost and found CGK and KL, I was able to retrieved and got my baggage sent to my house at 11.30 pm, thanks to the third party again (the courier) and with this, it's the end of drama and FINALLY I can rest, phewww :)
Moral of the story with Airasia, their third parties have higher standard than the Airasia staff, proved not only by the story above but also emails sent out to Tony Fernandes on 5th July, replied by him a few hours after asked Mimi Pua to follow up, replied by Mimi Pua on 6th July asking Hsin Yee to follow up and will revert me to as soon as possible and till today I wrote this story, 7th Aug 11.20 pm, no single emails or calls anymore. "Oh come on...They are world's best low cost airline, not world's best service airline, you get what you pay, and those were more than what you paid" .
I am grateful that I lived through but we will never know what the future likes. Life is one time offer, eat well travel often, this will not stop me from traveling, but even more, maybe less with Airasia only haha."Every day may not be good but there is good in every day"
