<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Sad Singapore story out of Padang, in two parts...
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I WAS one of 11 Singaporeans caught in the Padang quake while we were in Sumatra for a photography trip. Our priority was to get the first flight back to Singapore on Sept 30.
As Tiger Airways had a scheduled flight the next day, we called to ask if we could get on the flight. We called repeatedly, but to no avail.
Although we heard that all flights were cancelled on Oct 1, we went to the airport anyway and were surprised that other commercial flights were operating as usual.
We managed to get 11 tickets from AirAsia, although we were booked to fly out on Tiger on Oct 3. We had no choice as there was not a soul at Tiger's booth at Padang airport. But that was not the end of our Singapore story. After we had booked our Air-Asia tickets, we received a call from a representative from the Singapore Embassy asking us if we wanted to be evacuated from Padang by a Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) plane, which was leaving Padang at about 8.30pm on Oct 1. We gladly accepted the offer and arrived at the airport an hour before the scheduled departure.
But no RSAF plane was in sight. At 9pm, we received a call telling us the plane was circling in the air for three hours waiting for approval to land. Just before midnight, another call informed us that the evacuation had to be aborted because approval to land was not given.
After our arrival in Singapore, we were told that the plane did not even take off that day. We are puzzled as to why we were told the plane was in the air for three hours, and hope the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will enlighten us.
William Teo
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I WAS one of 11 Singaporeans caught in the Padang quake while we were in Sumatra for a photography trip. Our priority was to get the first flight back to Singapore on Sept 30.
As Tiger Airways had a scheduled flight the next day, we called to ask if we could get on the flight. We called repeatedly, but to no avail.
Although we heard that all flights were cancelled on Oct 1, we went to the airport anyway and were surprised that other commercial flights were operating as usual.
We managed to get 11 tickets from AirAsia, although we were booked to fly out on Tiger on Oct 3. We had no choice as there was not a soul at Tiger's booth at Padang airport. But that was not the end of our Singapore story. After we had booked our Air-Asia tickets, we received a call from a representative from the Singapore Embassy asking us if we wanted to be evacuated from Padang by a Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) plane, which was leaving Padang at about 8.30pm on Oct 1. We gladly accepted the offer and arrived at the airport an hour before the scheduled departure.
But no RSAF plane was in sight. At 9pm, we received a call telling us the plane was circling in the air for three hours waiting for approval to land. Just before midnight, another call informed us that the evacuation had to be aborted because approval to land was not given.
After our arrival in Singapore, we were told that the plane did not even take off that day. We are puzzled as to why we were told the plane was in the air for three hours, and hope the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will enlighten us.
William Teo
