Of Durian and Flight Delay

I safely arrived at my hometown for the weekend but it was not without incident since the beginning of the day. First, I was unable to check in via Air Asia's website. Been trying from morning until evening but nothing good came out of it. Call the Air Asia's so called premium line only to found out it was always engaged (the premium line cost a whooping RM1.95 per minute). Finally I gave up trying.

My usual taxi driver to the airport was surprisingly slow today. Not sure what gone into him but it took him nearly 45 minutes to reach the airport. I arrived at 6pm whereas my flight was on 7pm. I hurried to the self check in kiosk only to find out I need to check in from the counter. Lucky for me, it was smooth sailing from there on.

Everything looks perfect. No delay. Boarded the aircraft well ahead of schedule. Then the air stewardess sensed something amiss when she smell something like a combustible gas in way of row 14. She promptly alerted the pilot of the situation and try to locate the source of the so called gas by opening the overhead compartment. At first she asked anyone who has a cigarette lighter and checked if there was any gas leak. No sign of any gas leak.

She then refer to the pilot again and this time around the First Officer came out of the cockpit to assess the situation. Still no clue what could had cause the smell. My heart almost lose a beat as I was certain at that point we will be asked to evacuate until thorough investigation was carried out. After a while, they concluded someone brought durian onboard and the lead stewardess asked the passengers if anyone brought it onboard. A passenger came forward and admit that he brought durian and stored in his bag at the overhead compartment.

I can see from the face expression of the lead stewardess that she was not happy with what had transpired and quickly secure that bag to the storage area in the pantry. I believe the durian had been opened up and stored in a container. He probably used some cheap container which is not air tight.

I don't think there has been a clear statement anywhere which mentioned durian is not allowed onboard. It is one of those issues which is in the grey area. However, I have to commend the lead stewardess for doing the right thing to ensure the safety of the passengers are not compromise although it cost us a 30 minutes delay. It is better to be late than sorry!