A Batavia Air passenger became hysterical and was taken off the plane just before take off from Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Friday.
The hysterical passenger, Andranita, was one of 180 passengers on a canceled Batavia Air flight heading to Jakarta from Pekanbaru on Thursday night. The earlier flight was forced to make an emergency landing.
According to an airline official, Zulkifli, the passenger was screaming and pulling a flight attendant’s shirt when the plane was about to take off.
The pilot finally decided to have her removed from the plane to prevent disturbance on the flight. Andranita was helped off the plane by another passenger, Ahmadi.
However, Andranita denied that she had been a nuisance. She claimed she only asked a flight attendant to ask the plane technician if the plane was ready to fly because she did not want to go through a repetition of the incident on Thursday night.
“I am traumatized and I asked the flight attendant to confirm all was well with the plane to reassure us, but she didn’t give a satisfactory answer. During last night’s incident, none of Batavia Air’s flight attendants did anything to calm us down either,” Andranita said.
Ahmadi said he accompanied Andranita to show solidarity.
“I am ready to testify that Andranita didn’t do anything which could disrupt the flight. It is highly regrettable that Batavia Air didn’t understand the psychology of passengers who almost experienced an accident. We are traumatized,” Ahmadi said.
