The explosion rocked the Malaysia Airlines B737-200 as it was climbing at an altitude of about 15,000 feet above Temerloh, Pahang.
For a split second, shock reverberated through the body of Captain Azmi Radzi. Then his training and hours spent at the simulator kicked in as his motor nerves went into gear.
He had to act fast as the lives of his crew and about 70 people on board the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Miri was literally hanging in the balance.
Azmi suspected that the right engine was damaged, almost certainly on fire. When his first officer confirmed this, Azmi closed the number two (right engine) thrust lever and kept the plane flying level.
His years of training had taught him that the first thing you do in a mid-air emergency is aviate, which means keeping the plane in the air and making sure the speed, altitude and wings are all level.
After you aviate, you navigate and that’s what Azmi did.
As he and his first officer went through the emergency checklist from memory, Azmi pulled on the fuel lever to cut off fuel to the damaged engine.
Almost immediately, he pressed the engine fire button to disconnect the hydraulics. The right engine stopped functioning and the vibration ceased.
He then hit a button to discharge the fire extinguisher embedded in the right engine.
Azmi knew he had secured the engine and they were out of danger – for now.
But the Boeing now had only one working engine, and therefore less power. Having put out the fire, aviated and navigated, Azmi proceeded to the third phase: communicate.
He called out: “Pan Pan, Pan Pan, Pan Pan”.
This was the internationally recognised distress call that would alert the control towers and planes within hearing distance.
It was a level two distress signal, one level lower than a “Mayday” call.
After informing the control tower at Subang about his situation, Azmi spoke to his passengers, whom, he knew, would be worried: “Ladies and gentlemen, we had damage on the right side of the engine but it is now under control. We have isolated the problem, so there’s no cause for worry. This plane is safe to fly on one engine. “
Azmi’s training had taught him that after being upfront with the passengers on the situation, he had to manage their expectations.
He continued: “We are turning back to KL, which is the nearest place to land. As this aircraft is a little too heavy, we need to burn fuel; so we will fly around to make the plane lighter to land. This whole exercise will take about 35 minutes.
“Once we arrive, there will be fire engines waiting and a flurry of activity on the ground. Don’t be alarmed; these are just precautions. Stay calm and listen to the instructions of the crew, please. Thank you for your cooperation.”
All this, from getting the plane to fly level to assuaging the fear of passengers took about eight to 10 minutes.
The plane landed safely, thanks to the training Azmi and his crew had had and their nerves of steel. This was in 1982.
I ask Azmi, now aged 69 and a father of two and grandfather of five, if he was scared, even for a fraction of a second and he says: “Certainly there was the initial shock. But then the training kicked in. In such circumstances, your muscle memory goes into play as you have to act fast. You have no time to be scared. “
Azmi’s description of what happened that day in 1982 throws some light on the incident involving a Boeing 777-200 last week in the US.
United Airlines’ Flight 328 was flying from Denver International Airport to Honolulu on Feb 21 when its right engine exploded.
Unlike Azmi’s flight, however, debris from the United Airline’s plane, caused by the explosion and engine fire – a dramatic video clip of which went viral – fell onto the ground.
Fortunately, no one was hurt and the plane landed safely.
Boeing has since recommended the grounding of all its 777-model aircraft using older Pratt and Whitney engines until inspections can be carried out. Countries using these engines have done so.
The same day, another incident involving engine failure occurred over the Netherlands.
Engine parts of a Boeing 747 cargo plane bound for New York fell off after a mid-air explosion and one of its engines caught fire shortly after taking off from Maastricht Airport.
The plane landed safely but two people on the ground were injured by falling engine debris.
Azmi says the pilots of both these aircraft would have gone through a procedure similar to what he had put into motion when the engine of his plane exploded and caught fire over Temerloh.
“They would have followed a similar checklist as countless others and I would have done.”
And this standard operating procedure on all flights anywhere in the world once attracted the attention of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
For two years in the 80s, Azmi was among a pool of pilots who flew Mahathir on his visits abroad.
The first time Azmi flew Mahathir was when the then prime minister was visiting some South Pacific nations. Azmi flew him in a government jet – a B737 which was equipped and maintained by MAS – to Bali, from where Mahathir took another plane to the South Pacific islands.
“The second time we were flying together, in Dec 1984 to the Middle-East, I remember the prime minister asking if he could sit in the cockpit. I said ‘Certainly’. He watched intently as we went through the checklist before take-off. He would frequently come and sit in the cockpit before take-off and during landing on subsequent trips.
“He was always curious, asking what we were doing and why. We told him that this was a standard checklist and that anyone flying any aircraft anywhere in the world had to do the same thing.
“He perked up and thought aloud: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if all government departments had similar checklists so that procedures would be uniform throughout the country?’”
How was Mahathir as a person, I ask.
“Mahathir was very nice, soft-spoken. He would listen raptly to our replies. Once, we even celebrated his birthday on board with a small cake arranged by Malaysia Airlines.”
Azmi, who was in the second batch of pilots to be sent for training in 1972 by Malaysia Airlines, has handled several other dangerous situations in the air in his 45-year career as a pilot.
He recalls an earlier incident in Sarawak where he faced engine trouble too.
“In 1974 or 1975, when I was second officer, I was taking off from Lahat Datu to Sandakan in a Fokker F27 with the captain’s permission. As soon as we lifted off, my right engine died, and the aircraft swung to the right where there were hills.
“My motor memory kicked in and I managed to bring the aircraft under control. Once I had done that, the captain took over and we landed safely.”
Although born in Alor Star, Azmi, the third of four siblings, spent most of his school days – from Standard 3 to Form 6 – at King Edward VII School, Taiping.
After finishing his Form 6 in 1971, a friend told him that the soon-to-be-established Malaysia Airlines had advertised for cadet pilot recruits.
Malaysia Airlines, which began as Malayan Airways Ltd, flew its first commercial flight in 1947.
In 1963, it was renamed Malaysian Airways before being known as Malaysia Singapore Airlines in 1966. The Malaysian government then decided to have its own national carrier and Malaysia Airlines was born in 1972.
Azmi was among six selected in 1972 to undergo training – the second batch from Malaysia to do so – at the Qantas cadet pilot training school in Sydney, Australia, as there was no pilot training school in the country then.
After 18 months, he returned to be posted as second officer at MAS’s Kota Kinabalu office where he flew the Fokker Friendship for three years.
He was subsequently posted to Kuala Lumpur where he flew the Boeing 737 as first officer. Three years later, with the rank of captain, he was moved to Kuching for two years before being posted back again to Kuala Lumpur.
Here he flew the B737, the Airbus A300 and the B747. In fact, Azmi flew the B747 for almost 20 years until he retired from MAS in 2012 at the age of 60.
He then joined AirAsia X where he flew the Airbus A330 until retiring, again, in 2017.
While piloting planes with MAS, Azmi managed to complete an MBA.
During his stint with MAS, Azmi was chief pilot for seven years in the Human Factors Department, where he conducted training.
In 1990, Azmi, who is always looking for a challenge and better ways of doing things, developed a course called Crew Resource Management, a soft skills course for practical and technical skilled people such as pilots.
The soft skills include communication, decision making, situational awareness, leadership, stress management and understanding various cultures.
Although MAS was the first aviation firm to have such a course in the country, US airline pilots were already undergoing it.
Today, it is a mandatory course for all pilots and cabin crews worldwide.
These days Azmi is a simulator flight instructor with MAS, teaching pilots to fly the Airbus 330, including how to handle the situation if an engine explodes mid-air.
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