We never gave up: Air Asia X pilot

PETALING JAYA: The pilot for Air Asia X's D7237, which managed to avert a potential catastrophe last Sunday said he was calm and had not given up hope in finding ways to land the aircraft safely after the plane had engine difficulty, Berita Harian reported today.
Captain Ibrahim Jalaluddin, who had been criticised for asking passengers to pray during the emergency situation, told the Malay-language daily he did not see any harm in appealing for divine intervention.
"I also prayed and I feel it is not wrong to ask them (the passengers) to do the same. I am thankful for landing the aircraft safely in Perth," he told the daily while thanking his crew.
Captain Ibrahim, who has been a pilot for 25 years, told the daily that while elevating between 38,000 and 40,000 feet in the air, they heard a loud sound like something hitting a metal object.
"At that moment, I thought we hit another plane. The aircraft started swaying left and right.
"I realised that this happened because the left engine was not functioning properly as the auto pilot that's been set to turn left had instead flown to the right," he told Berita Harian.
Together with his co-pilot Vincent Low, they shut the engine and told the control tower in Perth that the flight was in danger with a 'may day' signal, he said.
Ibrahim also said he and Low had weighed all options before deciding to turn back to Perth, despite there being smaller airports in the area.
"I did not know about the length of the runway at these airports. I was not sure if any other equipment on the plane was damaged.
"Moreover our emergency was not one that required immediate landing. The standard operating procedure for AirAsia X and Airbus is that immediate landing is allowed for problems with fire or smoke," he said.
"We never gave up, in fact we tried our best to find ways to land safely in Perth," he added.
The AirAsia X flight to the country was forced back to Australia on Sunday morning due to a technical problem, with one passenger saying the plane was "shaking like a washing machine".
The Airbus A330 from Perth to Kuala Lumpur experienced problems about 90 minutes into the journey.
According to other reports from Australian media outlets, several passengers had recorded the video of the aircraft described as "shaking like a washing machine", while the pilot made the announcement asking everyone on board to pray on the way back to Perth.
The aircraft eventually landed safely, with Perth Airport reporting a "technical issue".
But after that a storm brewed on social media when it was revealed that Ibrahim had asked passengers to pray for a safe landing with some criticising the pilot and others defending his decision.