SHAH ALAM, 26 Mar: A Malindo Air plane en route from Subang to Kuala Terengganu was forced to turn back shortly after takeoff because one of its engines caught fire this morning.
All passengers, including the Terengganu Super League football team, did not suffer any injuries on the 7.30 am flight.
Malindo Air, in a statement, reported that the incident occurred as the OD1804 aircraft climbed to about 7,000 feet (2,334 metres) soon after it took off.
“The aircraft fire detection system was activated and immediately the operating crew carried out the emergency checklist as per the standard operating procedure to contain the situation,” the statement said, quoted from Malaysia Kini.
A member of the football team took a picture of the fire which showed a large flame coming from one of the engines of the twin-engine turboprop aircraft.
The picture was widely shared on social networking sites in just a few hours, triggering confusion when a user said that the plane was operated by FireFly.
In a brief statement, FireFly, a subsidiary company of Malaysian Airlines (MAS), explained that they did not operate the ATR 72 type aircraft.
Meanwhile, a statement on the Terengganu FA webpage, said that their players have boarded a replacement flight to Kuala Terengganu at 10am.
All players involved arrived home safely after defeating the Malaysian Armed Forces team at the Selayang Stadium last night.
The fire involved caught the attention of the public following a series of accidents involving aircraft from Malaysia, especially the MH370 which has yet to be found and was reportedly lost in the middle of the Indian Ocean on 24 March.
What also caught the public attention as the case of the MH006 aircraft which had to be diverted to Hong Kong because of an in operational generator on the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Incheon, South Korea.
On 23 March, the passengers of the MH144 plane from Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu, Nepal, also suffered an anxious moment when a flock of ducks hit the landing lights when the aircraft was landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport.
