AirAsia is under fire after a flight from Kuala Lumpur landed at Gimpo Airport instead of its scheduled destination, Incheon Airport.<\/b>
\nAn AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Incheon triggered confusion and criticism after it made an unplanned landing at Seoul\u2019s Gimpo International Airport on Wednesday night, with passengers initially told they had arrived at their intended destination.
Originally set to reach Incheon at 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday, AirAsia flight D7 506 reportedly touched down at Gimpo at 8:08 p.m. after circling in the air.
According to passengers on the flight, after the captain announced they had arrived at Incheon, people stood up to retrieve their bags from the overhead compartments, but some looked out the windows and checked their phones to find they were at Gimpo.
READ: Pilot lands aircraft at wrong airport after duty hours end mid-flight
\u201cEveryone panicked. It seemed the cabin crew didn\u2019t know we landed at Gimpo until passengers told them. One crew member even said she needed to call her parents, who were waiting for her at Incheon International Airport,\u201d Lee Mi-hyun, a passenger in her 40s who was returning from a trip to Malaysia with her husband and 8-year-old daughter, told The Korea Herald.
Lee Mi-hyun\u2019s husband and daughter wait inside the plane after its emergency landing at Gimpo Airport on Wednesday, while passengers stand nearby asking crew members about the situation. (Courtesy of Lee)
What caused the flight to divert to Gimpo was \u201cturbulence\u201d over Incheon Airport, where it refueled before departing again for Incheon about two hours later at 10:17 p.m., according to the Korea Airports Corporation.
Lee noted that the crew failed to adequately handle the situation during the two hours before departure for Incheon.
\u201cThey appeared just as confused as the passengers. No water was offered, and there was almost no food left on board, leaving passengers with children upset. Some even said they would rather get off at Gimpo before the plane departed for Incheon,\u201d she said.
The captain and crew apologized over the PA system as the plane headed to Incheon, where it landed at 10:59 p.m., according to Lee.
Some passengers criticized the airline for failing to provide a clear explanation of the situation.
\u201cDuring the two hours before we departed for Incheon again, there was no clear explanation of what caused the landing error or any effort to reassure passengers,\u201d another passenger surnamed Ryu, 39, told The Korea Herald.
AirAsia has not commented on the incident.<\/p>\n