Fernandes in dismay over leak

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes (pix) has expressed his dismay after several engineering officers of AirAsia X (AAX) publicly expressed frustration over the carrier’s safety policy.

He said for 17 years the AirAsia group had generally kept their frustrations inside the company and sorted things out.

“My heart is sad today. Poison pen letters have no place in our culture. Sad day for me. Very sad,” he said in a Facebook posting.

He said their actions were wrong and that the group is an open and fair company that treats everyone equally, adding that the actions by staff had let down 22,000 all stars employees.

The open letter penned by some staff said there were serious breaches of aviation regulations by top management.

They said their intention was to avoid a tragedy with the latest aviation disaster involving Lion Air JT610.

They had written the open letter to AAX chairman Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, Fernandes, executive chairman Datuk Kamarudin Meranun and The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia, urging them to take action.

They alleged there were two serious misconducts committed by a department head that warranted immediate corrective action since it involves the safety of passengers.

“These misconducts happened quite some time ago but we are not very sure why there is no investigation being done.

“Does it mean we, who work on the ground, are dispensable and all the management personnel have special immunity no matter how serious their misconduct?” they asked.