Stranded comedian criticizes Malaysian Airlines for ‘abandoning’ passengers, staff, and crew in Manchester after Heathrow closure

Airports in the United Kingdom experienced a massive disruption last week after an issue with air traffic control. More than 1,750 flights arriving into and departing from airports in the UK were cancelled on Sep 8 and then almost 400 more the next day. 

This affected over  330,000 passengers, including Jason Leong, a Malaysian doctor turned comedian, who was flying into London to do a show.

Actually, Dr Leong had a double dose of bad luck with his flights last week. Before his London flight was diverted to Manchester, an earlier flight he was on had been affected by volcanic eruptions in Jakarta.

“At this point, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry… I just want to do shows,” he joked in a video on Sept 9, adding that maybe the Chinese ghosts or the feng shui masters he makes fun of in his sets are paying him back somehow.

However, in an update later that night, he had a more substantial target for his complaints: Malaysia Airlines.

Posting after 11:00 that night, he noted how his plane had landed in Manchester shortly past 5 pm. After staying on the plane for some time, they were able to enter the terminal, where they waited for their luggage.

“Here’s the problem. For three to four hours, we waited for our bags. They didn’t come, and we didn’t even have a carousel number,” he said, adding that he didn’t find fault with the staff at the Manchester Airport, who were dealing with an influx of flights diverted from Heathrow.

The cabin crew and pilots, he added, were amazing, and he found no problem with them either.

“The problem was with whoever it is who’s supposed to manage crises at Malaysia Airlines,” said Dr Leong, explaining that the passengers and crew were not told what steps they needed to take in the hours that they waited for their bags.

They had no idea whether they would be flown to Heathrow, or if they would be put up in hotels for the night and their bags would be brought to them.

“We were left with nobody at the airport to contact. Nobody knew what was going to happen,” he said, adding that Malaysia Airlines’ crisis management system “even abandoned their own cabin crew,” who ended up just as stranded as the passengers.

Dr Leong posted a photo of the captain of the plane who was trying to call Malaysia Airlines’ headquarters while fielding questions from the beleaguered passengers.

He said that this is the reason why the airline still has a rather poor reputation. The fact that Heathrow was experiencing a shutdown was well known at that point, “except, apparently, to the crisis management team of Malaysia Airlines,” said Dr Leong.

“I have no idea why I still keep booking flights with you,” he added.

“Malaysia Airlines abandoned all the passengers and crew of flight MH4 KUL-LHR (8th Sept 2026). To abandon even your own staff and crew is beyond reprehensible,” he wrote in the caption of his video. /TISG

Read also: Malaysia Airlines flight from Jakarta makes emergency landing at KLIA after cargo fire alert