Hysterical Passenger

HONG KONG (AFP) - A video of a hysterical passenger screaming at airline staff and writhing on the floor after missing a flight at Hong Kong airport has become a YouTube hit.

By Sunday, the three-minute clip of the furious woman had racked up close to 40,000 hits in three days on the video-sharing site.

The video starts with the screaming woman running towards the departure gate and bouncing off a female security guard, after she learned that her flight has been closed.

She then starts banging a desk before collapsing to the floor and rolling around, while maintaining a high-pitched wail.

A man unsuccessfully tries to comfort her and get her off the floor, but the shrill screaming continues.

The footage, entitled "A woman missed her flight at the boarding gate HKIA" appears to have been shot with a mobile phone from behind the staff desk.

The woman was travelling on a Cathay Pacific flight to San Francisco on February 4, a Cathay spokeswoman told AFP.

"All passenger doors had already been closed and the crew was preparing the flight for departure," she said.

"As the passengers had failed to show up on time, we had already offloaded their checked baggage to comply with the security requirements."

The spokeswoman said the woman had been able to take a flight a few hours later, adding passengers are always advised to arrive at the gate no later than 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time.

"We do not know who shot the video or who posted it on the web," she said.

Malaysia Airlines to allow cell phones on flights

Becomes first Asian carrier to offer in-flight mobile phone and data services

updated 8:59 a.m. PT, Tues., Nov. 4, 2008

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday unveiled a new service allowing passengers to make and receive calls on their mobile phones while in air on some routes.

Passengers can also send and receive text messages, and use their Blackberry-type devices to send and receive e-mails, Malaysia Airlines, or MAS, said in a statement.

It said the airline teamed up with AeroMobile, a British company, to become the first Asian carrier to offer in-flight mobile phone and data services via satellite with passengers using their own equipment.

Customers can now safely use their mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) during the flight without affecting the aircraft systems and ground telecommunication networks, the statement said.

The service is currently available on a single Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which flies on different days to selected European, Australian and Asian destinations including China and Japan, said the statement.

The system will be installed on all wide-bodied aircraft in the MAS fleet by next year if it proves to be successful, said MAS chief executive Idris Jala.

"This is one of the in-flight service comforts that we are introducing on a trial basis for our customers," he said. "With this facility, we definitely have a competitive edge and firmly believe that both our business and leisure passengers will very much welcome this new service," he added.

Users will be billed on their regular phone bills by their own service providers as with any other international roaming call.

Passengers will be encouraged to switch their phones to silent or vibrate mode when using them in the aircraft, said the statement.

Rejang River Cruise

Rajang River Cruise Set For July Next Year

By Edward Subeng Stephen

SIBU (Malaysia), Sept 30 (Bernama) -- A Myanmar-based company is planning to begin its inaugural Rajang River cruise here in July next year.

The Irrawaddy Fotilla Company said on its website that the cruise along Malaysia's longest river will be part of its Pandaw River Cruises.

The company is the largest river cruise company in South East Asia.In 1995, it was the first to pioneer an exploration of some of the region's major rivers and tributaries.

These included the Irrawaddy and Chindwin in Myanmar, the Mekong and Tonle Rivers in Cambodia and the backwaters of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

A brand new five star ship, the four-deck RV Orient Pandaw, made in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City will be used for the Rajang cruise.

The 55-metre long ship has 30 luxury state rooms. It also has its own treatment plants for desalination, desedimentation and purification using UV and osmosis in addition to a microbiotic treatment plant for sewage.

The Pandaw ship series, replicas of the original Clyde-built steamers, have an ultra shallow draft to enable them to moor where other larger ships cannot.

The ships can also penetrate remote and otherwise inaccessible areas while being specially designed to cope with constantly changing river conditions.

The Rajang cruise, a duration of nine days and eight nights, begins here with stops at Kanowit, Kapit and Nanga Mujong in Balleh before moving on to the Pelagus Rapids, Song, Sarikei and Tanjung Manis towns.

The cruise is planned for thrice a month.

It will also stop at longhouses, logging camps, the vestiges of the Brooke White Rajah era such as the Fort Emma in Kanowit, Fort Sylvia, the Pelagus Resort in Kapit, fruit and pepper farms, traditional songket textile workshops and other places of interest along the way.

Each passenger will have to fork out US$2,250 for the cruise.

According to the Irrawady Fotilla Company, the Rajang River at 640km is rarely visited by travellers on account of its inacessibility and the lack of tourist facilities.

The river, with rainforest on both sides, is navigable on a Pandaw ship for at least 250km till the Pelagus Rapids and further on its main tributary, the Balleh River.

Meanwhile, Sibu Sarawak Tourist Board(STB) executive, Rudy Anoi told Bernama that the Irrawaddy Fotilla Company managing director Paul Strachan had last month travelled up the Rajang River for a study of its potential and to make preparations for the maiden cruise.

"He also held a meeting with STB chief executive officer Gracie Geikie and local tour operators on the possibility of co-operating with them," he added.

-- BERNAMA