SIA passengers stuck on plane for 5+ hours after Hokkaido return

In response to The Straits Times queries, an SIA spokesperson said on Jan 13 that Flight SQ661 had departed Sapporo for Singapore at 10.14am local time.

However, after just slightly over an hour in the air, the Airbus A350-900 medium-haul aircraft returned to the airport as a technical issue was detected.

After landing at 11.30am, the aircraft was “assigned to a remote parking bay at the airport as engineers investigated the issue”, the spokesperson said, adding that there were 301 passengers on board.

SIA later cancelled the flight at 2.15pm as additional time was needed to investigate the issue.

A passenger told Shin Min Daily News that there was no air-conditioning in the cabin for some time.

She added that she was part of a tour group of about 20 people from travel agency ASA Holidays, and there was another group from CTC Travel also on board the flight.

The SIA spokesperson said that passengers were given refreshments and meals as they waited in the cabin for ramp buses to take them to the airport terminal.

As there were limited ramp buses available due to the peak travel season in Sapporo, the final group of passengers could disembark the aircraft only at 5pm, more than five hours after they had landed.

Jermaine Teo, who was seated in the last row of the plane, told The Straits Times on Jan 13 that she was among the last to disembark.

The 23-year-old added there was only one bus going back and forth between the aircraft and the airport, ferrying 20 passengers at a time.

“When we returned to the airport, there were two queues, one for those who wished to reschedule a flight and another for those who wished to arrange for accommodation,” said the recent university graduate, who was travelling with three other people.

However, she added that she was at a loss on which queue to join as there was no one around to direct them.

SIA had arranged for her group to stay at a hotel which was one and a half hours away from the airport, but she eventually chose to source her own hotel as she was concerned about making it for the flight the next morning.

“It was just kind of disappointing because many of us trusted SIA to take care of us, but we ended up sourcing for both accommodation and transportation ourselves,” she said.

According to Teo, SIA offered each passenger a compensation of up to 30,000 yen (US$190) on presenting their receipts.

SIA said that it had arranged hotel accommodation and land transport options for affected passengers. Meals in Sapporo and Chitose were also provided where possible.

The spokesperson added that the airline will reimburse passengers for alternative arrangements made for hotel accommodation and meals.

SIA operated a ferry flight which departed Sapporo at 10.57am on Jan 11 and landed in Singapore at 6.24pm.

The airline said that it also helped those who were transiting in Singapore to rebook their connecting flights.

Ann Chen

The Straits Times

Asia News Network