Singapore Airlines apologizes

I refer to Mr. Izhar's letter which appeared in The Jakarta post of April 10, 1996.

Firstly, allow me to apologize for the delays encountered by Mr. Izhar when he traveled with us recently.

SQ151 on March 15, 1996 originally left the departure gate at 7:32 a.m. A technical fault developed with one of the engines and the aircraft returned to the boarding gate at 7:47 a.m. Our engineers then had to determine the fault. At 8 a.m. the captain was advised that it would take at least two hours to rectify the problem. Passengers were advised accordingly and allowed to disembark from the plane. Ground staff were made available to answer their queries. It was not possible to transfer all passengers to other flights as most flights on that day were fully booked. Under such circumstances, preference is given to passengers traveling in first and Raffles class, priority passengers and those with urgent or compassionate reasons. The problem with the aircraft was rectified at 10:10 a.m. and the passengers were boarded soon after. It departed at 10:50 a.m.

SQ158/26 was initially delayed for 30 minutes due to a defect in one of the engine's thrust reversers. An announcement was made by the captain at 3:30 p.m. that a delay of 20 minutes was expected while the fault was rectified. Unfortunately, the engineers took an additional 10 minutes to complete the repairs. At 4 p.m., the captain was advised that no clearance for take-off could be granted until 5 p.m. as Changi Airport was closed for a planned air defense exercise. Again, this was advised to passengers on-board by the captain.

Refreshments were made available to passengers who chose to wait on-board. I am sorry that a ground staffer gave Mr. Izhar the wrong information that Soekarno-Hatta Airport was closed instead.

PAUL TAN

General Manager Indonesia

Singapore Airlines, Jakarta