MyAirline probing infant seat belt incident, threat to disembark plane
SHAH ALAM - Malaysia’s newest low-cost airline, MYAirline Sdn Bhd is investigating an issue faced by a passenger who claimed that he did not get an infant seat belt as requested during their journey with the airline company and that they were threatened to disembark the plane.
In a statement, MyAirline said that the investigation aimed to identify gaps in its service and take immediate corrective actions to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.
“We wish to acknowledge the recent incident in relation to the infant seat belt, for which we deeply regret and apologise for the unpleasant experience the impacted passenger had.
“As a matter of policy – we provide a passenger with an infant seat belt in accordance with the safety requirements set by the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM),” the statement read.
The airline company stated that as per guidelines, it was mandatory for children below 24 months old to be seated with a parent or guardian with an infant seat belt, but children above 24 months old must be fastened with a seat belt in their own seat for safety reasons.
Previously, a Facebook posting made its round on social media when the passenger claimed that the cabin crews of the airline failed to provide them with an infant passenger seat when requested, although the child had just passed 24 months of age.
“The cabin crew asked my wife if my daughter had a seat, to which my wife replied that she had (her own seat) but requested an infant belt for the plane’s take-off and landing.
“The cabin crew referred to her colleague and came back to say that children above two years old need to be seated on their own seats.
“My wife put our daughter on her own seat but as the plane started to move, my daughter started to cry and tried to get out of her seat,” the post read.
The man expressed his disappointment over the lack of understanding by the airline’s cabin crew and employees in the situation.
The man also claimed that the pilot made an announcement asking them to cooperate to remain seated or the airline would call the ground security to disembark the family from the plane.
During the incident, the man had recorded several videos but as they reached the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), he claimed that ground staff security had waited for them and asked him to delete the videos recorded on the flight but the team also sought clarification with them of what happened during the incident.
The post had since garnered reactions from the public, with some pointed out that they had good experiences with the airline while some lambasted the airline policy when it came to infants.
A Twitter user Xavier Nava said that he was satisfied with the airline’s service, including the complimentary luggage check-in.
Another Twitter user Anggun said that the policy put in place was stupid as she had not encountered such instances.
“Usually, they (cabin crews) would let the infants sit on their mother’s laps during take off and would return to their own seat after that,” she said.
However, several users also pointed out that the issue had to do with safety and it was in line with international’s guidelines, hence strict measured had to be taken.
A user ND Zulkarnain stated that if the rules were not followed, the airlines employees would be the one who would be penalised.
“All airlies in Malaysia need to follow the rules, if not CAAM would penalise (them). If there was a representative from CAAM in the flight, all crews would be questioned. Even before this, the rule of no phone usage in flight was set by CAAM but the crews are the ones that need to enforce it,” he said.
