NINETY-ONE flights were delayed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) yesterday, following the precautionary detonation of a World War II bomb found at a nearby construction site.
The airport’s runways for takeoff and landing were closed for one-and-a-half hours as the bomb was detonated at a construction site on KLIA II, located five km away from KLIA.
Flights landing and taking off from KLIA between 11.00 am to 12.00 am and 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm were rescheduled, delaying a total of 45 arrivals and 46 departures. Normal operations resumed at 3.26 pm.
The AsiaOne.com portal reported that airlines affected included Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, AirAsia X, Firefly, Garuda, Iran Air, Silk Air, AirAsia Indonesia, Thai AirAsia, Thai Airways, Tiger Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Pakistan Airlines and Eva Air.
The Straits Times quoted Malaysia transport minister Kong Cho Ha as saying that the two service interruptions were necessary because it was too risky to move the bomb. “It was better to detonate it,” he said.
Workers found the bomb on Monday night.
