Blackout Leaves 300 Stranded

KUALA TERENGGANU: A blackout at the Sultan Mahmud Airport here forced the cancellation of three flights, leaving about 300 passengers stranded last night.

The three cancelled flights were MAS MH1338, AirAsia AK6336 and Firefly FY3156 scheduled to take off at 9.15pm, 9.20pm and 8.30pm respectively. Three incoming flights were re-routed to Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

At press time, however, power had yet to be restored.

It is learnt that upgrading works late Friday night at the airport could be the cause of the blackout.

One of the affected passengers, Shanghai American School science instructor Tom Hopkins, 54, said he and his 16 students missed a flight bound for Shanghai at 1.40am today from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Hopkins and his students were in Terengganu for a volunteer programme on Redang Island.

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