MAS probes rude frontline staff at KLIA after video goes viral

A screen grab from the video showing one of the MAS frontline staff arguing with the passengers. – May 8, 2015.

Two Malaysia Airlines (MAS) frontline employees are being investigated by the national airline after videos showing them shouting at a group of passengers went viral on social media.

MAS said in a statement to the media that it viewed the matter seriously and an internal investigation had been carried out.

The videos, which appeared to be shot in two parts, showed the two employees from MAS's Customer Service Agent telling the group, who was on transit from Singapore, to "shut up" and to "line up" in an abrasive manner after they complained that they had missed their connecting flight due to a delay in Singapore caused by technical repairs to their aircraft.

"The passengers demanded they be transferred on their scheduled connecting flight to Hyderabad and Bangalore, which had by then departed the KL International Airport," the statement said.

They then demanded that they be placed on another carrier based at klia2 but that was not possible, it added.

"This resulted in the verbal exchange," it said, adding that the airline's duty manager resolved the situation and the passengers were booked on flights the next day.

One of the videos showed a ground worker shouting abuse. One of the passengers responded by saying that the MAS employee was shouting at them and the worker then told them to "shut up, one by one".

When one of the passengers complained that they had waited for four hours in Singapore, the employee responded by shouting louder.

As another passenger complained that the MAS employee was shouting at them, the latter uttered an expletive and stormed off.

Another video showed another MAS employee losing his temper when his attempt to calm the passengers failed and one of the passengers uttered an expletive when saying that the airline had mishandled two planes, referring to MH370 and MH17.

The frustrated MAS employee then uttered an expletive and told them to wait for the manager.

"Whilst the airline has high regards to the code of conduct of its employees, the airline does not condone abusive behaviours by passengers," the statement by MAS, which was also posted on its Facebook page, said.

- TMI