Last Friday while awaiting my flight from Lahad Datu to Kota Kinabalu, there was heavy downpour, so heavy that part of the small airport in Lahad Datu was flooded and I could actually see a massive traffic jam along the road outside the airport. The small airport at Lahad Datu is just sitting at a walking distance from the town. I used to walk from the Executive Hotel which I usually stay to the airport as it is so close. I was having some bad feeling that our flight might be called off even though we were already called to the boarding room. It was still pouring outside and I doubt the Mas Wing Fokker could land as the runway was inundated.
The flight at 2.40 pm was eventually cancelled as the plane from Kota Kinabalu could not land after a few attempts due to bad weather and flooded runway. It became very messy as some of the passengers were on connecting flights from Kota Kinabalu to other destinations. Mas Wing then gave 3 options; one, to take the last flight on 5.40 pm but that limited to a few available seats; two, to divert some passengers by taxi to Tawau then take the 9.00 pm flight to Kota Kinabalu and the last option, stay up one night on their expense at Lahad Datu to take the earliest flight the next morning.
I could not get the first option as the last flight was limited to a few seats and the bugger who lined in front of me actually took up several seats for him and his accompanies and neither did I like to travel all the way to Tawau by taxi as I was already sick of travelling by roads over the past few days so I chose to stay back. Never mind the staying back, but the rearrangement was rather chaotic; there were insufficient taxis for those passengers opting to go to Tawau, and naturally these increasingly annoying passengers became more and more impatient and thus making more grudges.
And for the whole flight cancelling episode in Lahad Datu that day, only two ground staff attended to 50 or 60 passengers and no wonder the rearrangement was rather slow. I was waiting for my hotel voucher from 3.00 pm and only got it at 5.00 pm before the hotel vehicle arriving at 6.00 pm due to a massive jam at town despite the short distance. As I was going into the hotel vehicles two other passengers from the last flight arriving from Kota Kinabalu were also coming in and these guys shared with me their more panicky experience as they were those supposed to land Lahad Datu at 2.00 pm which was supposedly the flight I was boarding at 2.40 pm.
It seemed that the plane they were boarding failed to land due to poor visibility and flooded runway and after a few unsuccessful attempts, the pilot decided to fly back to Kota Kinabalu thus my flight was then cancelled. I asked him how the situation on board was and he said he was scared to death as there were heavy rain and strong wind, and that bloody small Fokker was flying like a kite in a thunderstorm. The next morning as I was on the hotel vehicle to the airport, the driver told me that a car was swept by the flood water into the river then into the sea and the rescue team rushed to save the car, it was so fortunate to discover that there was no one inside.
Rains cause havoc over the past few days as my friends in Segamat were helplessly worrying about rising water at their home and electricity was cut off in several areas. As other people are happily getting ready for Chinese New Year celebrations, our friends in areas severely affected by floods have to endure all sorts of problem due to such untimely floods.
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