Chengdu to Kuala Lumpur: Drama in the Air
Aboard AirAsia X Flight D7-2623 from Chengdu to Kuala Lumpur, 26 Jan 2010
It’s a bad day in Chengdu, haze in freezing weather and flights are delayed. Our own flight D7-2623 pushes back some 20min late.
Taxi-ing towards runway 02, and what a depressing sight. And this is 3.20pm!
Soon we leave all the muck below us, and the waxing gibbous moon is a great sight.
Above the wilderness of Yunnan province, and over the intercom, a page for doctors onboard, real ones lah. Ah well, heard that several times before, so what’s new?
That’s our original flight plan, looking forward to being home by 9pm.
90min later, a surprise, the flight seems to be terminating at Bangkok! No announcements, nothing, so I ask a stewardess and she confirms we have to divert to BKK due to the sick passenger. Captain’s announcement only comes later.
Ah well, at least Bangkok is not as mucky as Chengdu.
Some impromptu spotting also helps.
The plane taxis to a spot on the ramp, at the end of the terminal, and the welcoming party is already here. The ambulance hopes to fetch the sick man, until they realise the man needs medical aid on the plane itself. It’s a suspected heart attack. The ambulance then goes away to get the medics.
Gawking at AirAsia X Airbus A330-300 (reg. 9M-XXC), probably the first time for them at BKK. 
Soon the medical team arrives and hurries up the staircase.
The poor man is brought to the front with a wheelchair, accompanied by AKX flight attendants carrying oxygen bottles. I don’t think there’s a real doc onboard. A petite Thai doc soon attends to him.
Sick man offloaded with some of his family members, and we are finally on our way to KUL. Total time spent at BKK, about 2.5hrs! We get home just before midnight.
Decades of air travel, and this was the first diversion encountered by me. One passenger with connecting flight in KUL got agitated, and foolishly quarreled with Thai airport security who boarded the plane. If she got arrested, we could be delayed further! Anyway we were kept on the plane, and the AKX crew did their best to manage us, and to assist ppl with connecting flights in KUL. Btw the sick man is Malaysian, wishing him all the best, so near and yet so far (from home).
And last but not least, well done to the AirAsia X flight crew who handled the emergency professionally!
> THE END
