SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines’ budget arm, Scoot, has revealed that the activation of oxygen masks on board flight TR996 on Sunday (Mar 24) was initiated by its pilots.
In a statement to Channel NewsAsia, Scoot said that “preliminary investigations indicated that the operating pilots made some procedural decisions in the descent phase of the flight that contributed to a slight loss of cabin pressure”.
AdvertisementThe pilots were flying an Airbus A320-200 from Singapore to Taipei, when the incident occurred.
“While the flight would have continued on safely, the operating pilots nevertheless decided to deploy the oxygen masks as a precautionary measure. The pilots will be undergoing retraining to address the gaps, and we apologise for the anxiety and inconveniences caused to passengers,” added Scoot.
There were no injuries to any of the 178 passengers on board the flight, which landed safely at Taoyuan International Airport at around 1.15pm local time. However, the airline said that a passenger reported that her baby had vomited during the descent.
Scoot said that the A320 has since been grounded for investigations, with spares already flown in to recover the aircraft. The carrier will also conduct additional tests before returning the aircraft to service.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe return flight, TR997, which was originally scheduled to depart at 2pm local time, was retimed to 12.45am on Monday and landed in Singapore at 5.39am.
The latest incident is among a string of at least 12 major flight disruptions caused by aircraft technical issues that Scoot has experienced since November last year.
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