KUCHING: Political Secretary to the Chief Minister, Michael Tiang expressed his disappointment on the Malaysian Airlines plane which skidded off the runway at Sibu Airport last Saturday.
Tiang said this happened when the issue of the chicken wings dumping incident was still fresh in the minds of Sarawakians.
Although he was glad that the 61 passengers and 6 crew members on board the plane were all safe.
“The incident caused the Sibu airport to be closed for 24 hours causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers coming and going to Sibu and many had incurred unnecessary expenses as a result.
“Nevertheless, I am more disappointed with the fact that with these two unfortunate incidents happening in Sibu in such a short span of time, our local ministers and chairman of Sibu Municipal Council had remained absolutely silent on both incidents. “They are the leaders elected and appointed to represent the people of Sibu and yet when a crisis arose there was no leadership,” he said.
Tiang added that he was also disappointment with Members of Parliament for Sibu and Lanang that this was not the first time a plane skidded off the runway due to a heavy downpour. A few years ago a commercial aircraft also skidded off due to bad weather. This kind of problem recurred at Sibu Airport last Saturday which pointed to a fact that there is an urgent need for an auto landing system to be installed at Sibu Airport. The MPs concerned could have voiced this issue in Parliament.
“As a political secretary, I would personally write to the Minister of Transport to fight for Sibu to have an auto landing system,” he said.
