This is what happened from a passenger's point of view. This is the letter I sent to AirAsia
Dear Sir, Madam,
I was with my family on board AK5342 on the 17th of august from Langkawi to Singapore. The complaint I have is about the lack of information from the cockpitcrew about the things that happened during this flight. After taxi out we were standing near the runway at Langkawi for at least 20 minutes. Then the captain informed the passengers that due to airport congestion we still had to wait another 10 minutes. This was somewhat difficult to believe. We were not the only ones thinking that this was not true. Shortly after reaching cruising altitude the aircraft started to descent again with speedbrakes. All the way to low altitude, I suppose 10.000 ft. By this time I told my wife we were going to divert, the captain informed the passengers a few minutes later that due to a technical problem we had to divert to Kuala Lumpur. He mentioned nothing about what kind of failure, to me it was clear that it was a pressurization problem. Later the temperature in the cabin became hot, we heard the airconditioning surge a few times. During the further descent to the airport of KL we felt more than normal pressure on the ears, it was clear that the pressurization of the aircraft was no longer working. During taxi after landing the first officer apologized for the inconvenience of the diversion and the airconditioning problems.
Please inform me about the real problems of this flight, as the captain was not telling the whole story. We were not the only ones who had big question marks. It even crossed my mind that the cockpit crew was very busy before departure trying to solve a problem but I will not accuse anybody of something which I cannot prove. But the lack of information makes me think so. A failure or problem can happen. A diversion is inconvenient but so be it. But I like to be taken seriously as a passenger, I have a right to. For your information I know what I am talking about, I am an airline-pilot myself.
