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About 130 Shanghai tourists are due to arrive home from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta this morning -- more than 40 hours late, after their plane broke down.
However, many chose to delay their flight back due to safety concerns.
"If they wanted to, they could have boarded the original plane after the breakdown was fixed," Lan Jingxiang, marketing manager with the Shanghai Office of Garuda Indonesia, told China Daily yesterday.
Lu Yalong, first secretary of the Chinese embassy to Indonesia, agreed.
He said the delay occurred on Garuda flight GA896, which was supposed to land at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 7:10 am on Tuesday.
"After all the passengers boarded, the plane failed to take off as expected. Instead, a breakdown was announced. Although the mechanical failure was fixed later, many passengers felt so unsafe they demanded to get off the plane," said Lu.
Some tourists later accepted the airline's arrangements and flew back to Shanghai on the original plane, which reached Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 10:39 am on Tuesday. But most wanted to board a different, "safer" plane.
"Several of us had to rush to the airport to resolve the dispute. Eventually, the airline agreed to fly the tourists back to Shanghai later, and pay for their accommodation during their stay in Jakarta," said Lu.
There was only one flight scheduled to reach Shanghai from Jakarta on Tuesday.
Lu called Garuda a "responsible" airline, willing to take care of its passengers at its own expense.
"Such an incident is not rare in the world's aviation industries. And flying an almost empty plane to Shanghai and organizing accommodation for so many people is not financially easy for the airline," said Lu.
"But we believe the generosity on the part of the airline is good for the image of the Indonesian tourism industry as a whole among Chinese people."
But Lan said the airline should have handled the situation better. "There would not have been panic if there had been good enough Chinese interpreters to explain the situation well."
There are only two languages used by Garuda Indonesia: English and Indonesian.
"Now that Chinese tourists are becoming increasingly important to the Indonesian tourism industry, we have suggested the company add Chinese as well," said Lan.
"We are proud of our services, but it is obvious we still need to improve."
Also yesterday, Lu told China Daily that no Chinese were injured or killed in the hotel blast in Jakarta on Tuesday.
"We have checked the hospitals taking casualties from the deadly car bombing and have found no Chinese," he said, refuting some domestic reports that two Chinese were injured in the accident.
(China Daily August 7, 2003)
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