It is been a month of Ramadhan been practice by Muslims around the globe including Malaysia. The auspicious celebration of Hari Raya Aidilfitri will be commencing this weekend. Therefore, many Malaysians of all races will take the opportunity to return to their lovely hometown around Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak in celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri and also spending the precious holidays to be with family members. Therefore some may choose to drive, using public buses and trains as their choice of journey. Plus, the low cost fare by Air Asia sure will be the top priority of ASEAN community of transportation to return to their lovely hometowns too. No matter which part of the globe we are, Air Asia sure will be the top choice of flying back home to Malaysia to celebrate the auspicious Hari Raya with family members. Therefore, is been a top priority of Air Asia in producing top service and quality to each of it’s passengers who are flying with Air Asia during this Ramadhan month.

By this at Air Asia, as the service and the quality are always been the highest priority been practiced by Air Asia staff no matter what race or religion, they are always being the best in serving to their passengers flying with Air Asia. Therefore, the Muslims staff of all positions and departments do not take the advantage practicing Ramadhan fasting in lacking their routine responbilities and commitment in serving the best for the most honored name, Air Asia carrying the slogan “ Now Everyone Can Fly.”

As a Malaysian, I am proud of the brand name of Air Asia been spread around the world. With the recent touchdown in United States of America by Air Asia X’s Airbus A340, it has proof that the world is opening their doors to Air Asia to spread their wings higher and wider globally. Therefore, I would like to share some of Air Asia’s Muslims Crew experience on how they had been providing the best service in this festive Ramadhan fasting month. These crew who have chose their heart to follow their dreams and passions in their life but the most importantly to share their experience will be a honor to share with all no matter who we are.

Ramp Crew, Mohd Nor Firdaus


He is well known with the name of “Bob” among Air Asia crew which is totally a suitable name for a tough and passionate person like him to be a ramp crew. Mr Firdaus handles the safety measurements in handling ground operations when an aircraft taxi at the tarmac. This includes maintaining a good alliance with the flight operations such as maintenance, towing aircraft, loading and offloading luggage, attending request of each aircraft, supplying man power and many more. With the unpredictable weather conditions no matter rain or shine, the responbilities been taken is not easy and simply challenging to handle it. With having numerous years of experience, Mr Firdaus and the other fellow crew handles it professionally and always been in ready mode physically and mentally.

When asked of his experience as a ramp crew, Mr Firdaus stated that being a ramp crew is simply challenging and adventurous. Why does he say that? Is because the normal routines and task cannot be forecast in a predictable order or schedule due to various technical issues being occurred for the ground crew such as ramp to be precise on how heavy luggage they will be handling, the efficiency of performing maintenance on aircraft, the logistic request been entertained and most important task performing safety duties in different types of weather conditions. In short, each of them should be ready to multi task in a short time of notification.

So with the heavy task in his shoulders, fasting is not the reason why he should least his daily task. This year, Mr Firdaus will be on duty on both Hari Raya celebrations for the 4th year in a row. Even though it is something beyond he could expected, he said that job is job when ever the company needs you to fill in no matter any days in a year. He would not be celebrating the Raya celebration along but there is also some of his colleagues who are Muslims are also been assigned to be on duty too. He also stated that might be a small celebration within the crew will be held in order not feel sad but to boost up the team spirit.

There are few interesting situation occurred while performing normal routine while fasting but he calmly stated that is all the real challenge in daily routine that he is use to handling it. It meant by, everyday is something interesting to share about. Fasting month also do influence the real patience being as a ramp. This is because frustrations do build up very often due to task had been done will bounce up to re-do all over again. Mr Firdaus was kind enough to share an experience just occurred on the day before I met him which is when a flight is ready to be take off, the numbers of passengers and the amount of luggage listed after checking-in is more than the number of passengers in the aircraft. That shows there is few passengers had not board into the plane. Therefore announcements had been made in terminal but the missing passengers did not turn up and the flight had been delayed due to missing passengers. The captain of the flight had instructed the ground crew to remove the luggage of the missing passengers in order to catch up the delay timing.

For Mr Firdaus, Air Asia always cares for its staff with over helming support in fulfilling religion responbilities. He is also glad all his non Muslims crew members really supports each other in filling up duties while the Muslims prepares for break-fasting and “Sahur”(the meal before sun rises). They even share the precious time by having meals in a big group no matter any religion you are in as mutual understanding always has been practiced well in Air Asia

Pilot, Nadira Ramli

After the post of “This one's for the girls” by Dato Tony Fernandes in his blog, many blog readers are inspired with the concept of having female pilots in Air Asia despite of not many major airlines do really have female pilots. It is believe that Air Asia has the most female pilot in ASEAN and also having the first female Captain Pilot in ASEAN too. Being a pilot is always a passion for Nadira. She had graduated from a local flying institution and has been flying for Air Asia in her young age. With the experience that is building up in her wings, she also have her dream to be a Captain and also obtaining more experience in flying long hour routes.

Being so low profile, Nadira discuss about her routes of the day she had flied before I initially meet her. It is understood that Air Asia pilots and Cabin Crew will have to cover 4 routes and sometimes it also rise to up to 6 routes. Even though Nadira performs her duties in her daily routes, her religion teaching of fasting in Ramadhan month is been practiced strictly in her. For Nadira, fasting is being the challenge of being calm in any conditions. When Nadira been asked what it is like to live for your dream as a pilot, she gave a quick response of “Loving It All The Time.” That is something passionate to hear a female pilot love her career with Air Asia.

As a Muslim, Nadira has no problem in fasting while flying an aircraft. She also had informed that even though she flies to various type of routes, she will normally break her fasting following the local time. By this, Nadira point out this is a interesting role to be a Pilot because it has different points of view being a pilot. Pilot Nadira also commented that different human being has it own limitations of fasting while during their normal routine in life. It depends on how an individual can handle a long route during fasting month. She also stated that Air Asia treat all its staff including the Pilots equally. This is because all Pilots are bound to their roster of duties which has he flight that has been assigned to each of them. She is fortunate to celebrate Hari Raya due to given holidays for the celebrations.

Even though being a pilot has it own challenge, Nadira had proven too as every other female pilots in Air Asia that possibilities in handling difficult situation can be manage by both genders.

Senior Flight Attendant (SFA), Noor Waly Abd Wahab

Being a flight attendant requires good personality profile and also being responsible to make sure that safety regulation on aircraft are followed. Every each of the flight attendants also need to do their best to ensure what they can to make sure passengers is comfortable during their flights. Having a passion to have a career as a flight attendant will surely need to undergo intensive training at the top class. As for Noor Waly, she has been a flight attendant for more than 9 years under wings of service in aircraft and had met numerous numbers of passengers on board flight. She is currently a Senior Flight Attendant for Air Asia and also flies for Air Asia X routes too.

As a Muslim Flight Attendant, Noor Waly ensures that there is no problem in practicing religion teaching of fasting in Ramadhan month. According to her, a senior flight attendant is the lead flight attendant and she is to ensure all her crew smiles and serve the passengers in quality hospitality. Even though, Noor Waly flies on routes that occur more than 4 hours of journey route, being tired is not in her mind in fasting month. As well as an experience flight attendant, she always practices being the best of herself in performing her responbilities.

Being a flight attendant, he or she need to be ready for any situations that may occur on board no matter what type situations may arise. When been asked whether she had encounter any tough times while performing her responbilities, she smile and replied that being a flight attendant is always to be prepared for any issues or situations. Most of the time, she and her colleague will encounter dissatisfactory passengers’ climbs on board and throw their anger and scolds the flight attendants.

Achieving more than 9 years of experience being a flight attendant, Noor Waly had been serving for other major airlines for 6 years before being an Air Asia flight attendant for 3 years. She personally believes Air Asia is the best move she had made. This is because Air Asia stress free and also happening company to work with even working during Ramadhan month. She also had shared her moment of break-fasting above 15 000feet in air with her colleagues. To ensure all her crew breaks their fasting, she ensures they do it in pair as they should not neglect their responbilities to the passengers. She always practices that passengers always be the top priority while breaking her fast.

That is how well a flight attendant performs his or her responbilities in any circumstances and also ensuring the name Air Asia been fame into higher level in the aviation industry.

Guest Service Assistant, Hayati Mustaza

First, what does a Guest Service Assistant in red (for females) and black (for males) is all about? Do their uniform is the same as the flight attendants? It actually plays a big role to Air Asia as each crew of Guest Service Assistant is the front liners. According to Hayati, being a Guest Service Assistant is about being able to multi task at the same time. They normally perform the responbilities of checking in passenger’s luggage, performing at CBTO (Control Baggage Tracking Office), boarding passengers and more. Being able to perform the responbilities of a Guest Service Assistant by Hayati during the fasting month had entourage each passenger with being strong and patience in her.

Guest Service Assistant such as Hayati deals with various types of passengers from all ASEAN countries and also European passengers who travel to Malaysia with Air Asia. Therefore there are a lot of verbal communications with passengers while handling at the check in counters. Ramadhan month has been the most significant test of patience that been taught in her as a Muslim. In this situation of handling various task in a same time may cause great thirst and hunger as a lot of energy been used in handling front line task and also the working hours.

Even though Ramadhan month has been challenging for Hayati, she endorse that being a Guest Service Assistant is always being a good interest and also fun to work in. Multi tasking is always been practice by her and her colleague without any excuses during Ramadhan month. Being able to perform great working spirit in Ramadhan month, Hayati had proved that people’s concept of working in Ramadhan month is tough to bare with is exactly not true. The support been given to her from Air Asia also made her to perform the best performance and productive passengers handling.

Speaking of having fun during the working hours is not about skipping any task but being able to meet famous artist who travels with Air Asia. In this wonderful Ramadhan month spirit, she had met many local and international artists who had check in themselves at Hayati’s check in counter. Thus this is a good way being strong and smiling to passengers has also been a top priority of being a front liner. Everyday is something new when meeting various people flying with Air Asia.

Breaking her fast during her working shift is not a problem for Hayati as the understanding among her non Muslim colleague is been supportive to her. Normally a Muslim will break their fasting during sunset and also having their meal which is called ‘sahur’ in Bahasa Melayu before the sunrise up to the sky. This also had been a great moment which Hayati could be proud of which is being able to break fasting with all her Muslim colleague together in a time.

Ramadhan month has not been an influence in Hayati as to lacking the working spirit and performance for being a Guest Service Assistant. This is because the process being done in every duty performance is the same as every other month. Ramadhan has been teaching Hayati to be extra patience and also being calm when meeting various passengers during check in. Being tired has always occurred during working due to dehydration. This is because verbal communications need a lot of energy in physical and also mentally. It is also due to lacking to have a drink during work in fasting month.

For Hayati, the most important been shown in Air Asia is the understanding by every staff in supporting a Muslim like her to be the best during work. Even the task is tough, Hayati always will stand with the work fun as she explores herself as a Guest Service Assistant. She also believes that the holy month of Ramadhan is not an excuse to delay the task been assigned to her.

Engineering Apprentice, Izyan Syazwani Mahfuz

Being a female engineer is actually going beyond of people’s perception and interpretation of heavy job of an aircraft engineer. Syazawani purely wants to live her dreams in being an aircraft engineer as it is her ambition since young. Currently, Syazwani main role is consistently do maintenance checking to all aircraft which taxi into the terminal. Despite the unpredictable weather conditions during this Ramadhan month, rain and shine is not something new for Syazawani as she perform careful maintenance on the aircraft. This is because Air Asia main concern is ensuring high safety measurements on each aircraft.

When been approached about Syazwani living her dream, she gave a wide smile saying that it is not as easy some may think because it is a very interesting and challenging field she is in now. Besides the weather conditions, the supports form her colleagues and also the LAE Engineers made her to be ready mentally and also in physically during this Ramadhan month. She also informed being an engineer is always having good team work. Even the challenge may arise higher by day, Syazwani enjoys her dream path by knowing herself to be a strong girl and also recognizing there are also Muslims individuals perform the religion teaching of fasting just like her.

Being able to give her best during Ramadhan month, the tough times that she encounters would be the weather. Physically dealing with weather is the ultimate test under the conditions of heavy rain, scorching skin and more. She also could not forget the tight schedule in her hands to have a quick ‘sahur’ during night shift. There is a time where Syazwani break her fasting on the tarmac due to technical issue been rise up during all Muslims break their fast when the sun sets down.

The most memorable moments in Ramadhan month for Syazwanie is breaking fast with all the night shift crews together as one. She said that the joyous moment of sharing meals together is the precious time she has been in Air Asia during Ramadhan celebration. Being a female engineering apprentice, Syazwani do endorse that fasting month has a little influence on her. This is due, the hot and sunny weather on the tarmac do really make a girl like her been dehydrated but the working performance is calmly the same as working in non-Ramadhan month. Syazwani loves the concept of understanding from her non-Muslim colleague where by she and her other Muslim colleagues been excused for breaking fast during the time of breaking fast. She believes that the mutual consideration of good understanding may lead a good and harmonious Malaysian brand company, Air Asia.

Being what we are as a Malaysian, I am proud to humble to see all races and religions being one in celebrating and supporting each festive season in Malaysia. Having a multi-racial environment in Air Asia from local and international staff from England, China, Korea and many more do prove that good collaboration with each other will lead Air Asia into a better vision globally.

Wishing all Muslims in Air Asia, Malaysia, ASEAN and also around the world, a very Happy and Auspicious Aidilfitri celebration. Hope the celebration of Aidilfitri among all of us remains a good tradition and culture in leading to a good peace around the world.

Regards,
Satwin Hans

Johan’s posting on “Decisions. The Right, The Wrong.. And?” is an interesting topic that is worth looking into again. As an airline student pilot, he has a very good grip of what the CRM (Crew Resources Management) program is all about, albeit coining it in a different way (P.I.L.O.T instead of C.L.E.A.R)… (Sorry… it’s a pilot’s language for those not familiar with flying)

Ah… he is talking about his childhood mistakes on women again! Never mind, I hope he will make the right choice when he comes flying with the airlines soon! (hehe!)

Seriously, in his last posting, Johan touched on two very bad decision making episodes that were very troubling. When it comes to the topic about bad judgment, pilots are often reminded to learn from the mistakes of others as they wouldn’t live long enough to make all of them by themselves!

Captain Dom (see dinner photo below - we met up at the end of my A340 course whilst he and Capt Reiza arrived to start their A320 instructors course in Toulouse) is the man who is involved in enhancing flight safety in Air Asia through CRM or more specifically, discussed under “Threat and Error Management” (TEM) – something Johan mentioned about in his previous posting. The TEM concept will definitely help to cut down mistakes made in the air. I will leave this to him when he can find the time to share his knowledge with all on the good job that he is doing at the moment.

Chinese dinner with Captain Dom (2nd right), Reiza and FO Chang at Toulouse, France

Talking about decision making, I made a very simple decision, yet a memorable one last week as I flew back from London Stansted on the Airbus A340. As the commander of the flight, it was my responsibility to fly the plane safely home, taking into considerations the comfort of the passengers and every other aspects of the flight.

On receiving the Flight Plans from the flight dispatchers (they are not pilots), my eyes immediately homed onto the route that we were taking across the Bay of Bengal. Oh dear, it routed smack through the center of a massive thunderstorm spreading about 300 nautical miles around! I told myself that I must reroute to avoid the ferocious weather when I thought of the previous Air France flight over the Atlantic.

It was my decision, but nevertheless, I consulted with my other crew (one Captain and two other First Officers) on the wisdom of flying further to the North about 150 nautical miles to the left. Who knows… others may come up with something that I was not aware of! However, all agreed. That’s what we call CRM coming into play – a team effort on a simple decision!

A change of route meant that we had to reject the Flight Plans and make recalculations that would result in a delay of about half an hour on that day. This was because the documentations were not done on the spot but had to go through a series of emails 5900 nautical miles away.

In the end, we found that we made the right decision though it took us an extra two minutes longer. Other planes over the Bay of Bengal were “screaming” (communications with the air traffic controllers around this area were not very satisfactory at that time) for 100 miles deviations off the thunderstorms! We were only on the edge of it. It was still a little bumpy but at least we were only there for a short duration. Well, we were pleased that we were not in that rush to get out, especially when contact with the air traffic controllers was quite a hassle at the Bay!

Yes, I remember this saying, “You start off with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck!”

Nevertheless, where safety is concerned, we have to work towards it and not depend on luck. On this note, I have written an article titled “How Safe is Safe?” for the August issue of Air Asia’s Travel 360 in-flight Magazine. So if you happen to fly next month in any Air Asian planes, I hope you will get a chance to read it.

Till the next posting, Bye! Bye!

Captain Lim

My first Airbus A340 flight to London Stanstead on the “Oakland Raiders”

With FO Navin on Xcellence with the “Oakland Raiders”

Before I commence my take-off roll for Part III of the blog, I must pay my respects to Captain Dom and Captain Lim who always continue to inspire me with their work. Thanks so much for your kind words Captain Lim on your most recent blog post here:
http://blog.airasia.com/index.php/an-impressive-airline-student-pilot

I am humbled by your words and inspired to further excel in my studies to one day follow in your and Captain Dom’s footsteps for safer skies painted in red.

If you are reading this post for the first time, do read my other articles here prior before reading on. You would then have a better understanding of what Captain Dom, Captain Lim and I am trying to achieve with you as the respected reader to our AirAsia Blog.

Part I : http://blog.airasia.com/index.php/living-the-dream-so-you-wanna-be-a-pilot

Part II : http://blog.airasia.com/index.php/taking-to-the-skies-one-flight-at-a-time

Okay on to Part III. Captain Hans. This one is for you. How one blackberry message of “you are a pilot... make a decision!” can go a long way eh...

When I was growing up, my knowledge on decision making was a pretty simple affair. I would either be making the right decision or more often than others, (throughout my childhood) be making the wrong ones. Sigh... Women. hehehe

Anywayyyy, It was often acceptable to me then for poor decision making, as I was a boy who learned from his own mistakes. Of course, the older I became, the more I would learn from the mistakes of others and their wrong decisions.

In aviation, many living would appreciate, that there is no tolerance for mistakes particularly those from poor decision making.

Throughout my flying career and amongst the many thoughts constantly flowing through my head even when I sleep, one of the most important phrases would always be “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Now, I am confident you are no stranger to that phrase, but please let me share with you the importance of it in aviation primarily for commanders of an aircraft.

In July 1988 towards the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Navy Captain William C. Rogers III of the USS Vincennes was informed that there was a “bogey inbound intentions unknown” being tracked on radar. As soon as the UFO was suggested by his men to POSSIBLY be an F-14 Tomcat Fighter Jet, and after numerous attempts at trying to contact the UFO failed, Captain William ordered that it be shot down & destroyed.

The aircraft was not a military F-14 Tomcat Fighter Jet but a civilian Airbus A300.

Although the much controversial Iran Air Flight 655 which saw the death of 290 passengers will continue to go down in history as one of the greatest tragedies of aviation decision making, Captain William’s story and actual thought processes which lead up to the decision are still being learned in many management courses and universities around the world.

You see, although extremely tough, Captain William made a decision.

In aviation, especially as pilot-in-command, the job is essentially about making decisions. The more experienced you get, the better the decisions you make.

Over the past couple of months, studying flight down under here in Australia as an Airline Transport Student Pilot, I have formulated the FINAL DECISION as a third decision following RIGHT and WRONG.

Captain Williams from the USS Vincennes may have not made the right decision, but ultimately, he made a decision and that decision was final.

One cannot stress the importance of actually making a decision no matter how difficult that decision may be. Often comes a time where we find ourselves trying to “stall for time” with hopes that the situation either decides itself or someone / something else makes a decision for us. History has proven again and again that no good may follow from such a delay.

In January 1989, a year after the infamous Iran Air & USS Vincennes tragedy, Captain Kevin Hunt was flying the Boeing 737-400 British Midland Flight from London Heathrow to Belfast, Ireland when shortly after takeoff; he heard an extremely loud pounding noise haunting the cockpit. He gathered as much information as verbally possible from the First Officer, as he needed to fly the aircraft, and post their impromptu analysis “on the fly”, believed that the left engine failed completely.

He immediately made a decision to shut down the left engine and commence an immediate return to land procedure. Why I say procedure is because, it is never as simple as “point the aeroplane to the nearest airport and hope for the best”. Passengers need to be informed, a check-list of items need to be carried out (ie. weight to wheel / load factor ratio etc).

In this structured madness, the Captain actually called for the shutdown of the wrong engine, so obviously now both engines died out. Both pilots then believed they had a double engine flame out and then began to commence a “glide procedure”. The powerless 737, being a now very big glider, at its best glide ratio was looking at landing right smack in the center of a town called Kegworth which was short of their proposed runway. The captain made the decision to “stretch the glide” which according to the laws of aerodynamics, is impossible. However, making that decision, Captain Kevin didn’t slam the aircraft into the ground (which could have easily been achieved by pitching the nose down abruptly), he decided to raise the nose and reduce its overall ground distance yet also achieving the same objective but with a proven less impactful outcome. His estimated calculations were correct and he landed short of the town ultimately saving hundreds of innocent people on the ground from certain death.

Now neither of these examples mentioned above may have been the right decision (ie. Navy Captain William could have not fired the missile and Airline Captain Kevin could have turned the right engine off instead--literally), but by actually making a decision and having that decision final—it is still far more superior than not making a decision at all.

Therefore, in future when you need to make a decision, do the following. Think P.I.L.O.T. Probe the Facts, Identify the Problem, Look for a Solution, Operate (Execute) your Plan, then Take Stock of your decision(s). Good luck!

So the next time someone asks you “whats for dinner?” Don’t just say “anywhere” or “anything”, step up to the plate, make a decision. Take charge and Bon Appetite!

Till the next blog post...

Humbly Yours,
Johan Farid Khairuddin @ JFK
AirAsia X – Gold Coast,
AUSTRALIA

Yes, I have been rather busy getting to be qualified onto the new AirAsia’s aircraft inventory – the Airbus A340. As I have said in my first post, “A pilot with 50 hours of flying experience thinks he knows it all; a pilot with 500 hours knows he knows it all and a pilot with 5000 hours knows he will never know it all.”

So you see, I will never know it all! That’s what makes a pilot strives to learn as much as he can before he hangs up his uniform. Learning never ends if the pilot wants to maintain a good safety record to his name. That said, I am happy to have been finally checked out on the 4-engined bird – the Airbus A340 – probably the last plane that I will ever be qualified on amongst the more than a dozen types of planes that I have flown.

Air Asia’s Latest Airbus A340 – 9M-XAC

My roster for the month of July includes 4 flights to London (Stansted) and two to Tianjin, China – another new destination for the A340s. So I am gonna be rather tied up to do the things that I like to do as well as contributing to this Blog and thinking of more interesting articles for AirAsia’s Travel 360 Magazine.

Back to Johan’s post here – I am rather impressed by what he wrote as an airlines student pilot. He has displayed a very in-depth knowledge about aviation and the safe operation of an airline. For instance, he dwelt on the topic about the differences on the Airbus versus Boeing issues, what contributes to air safety and the gist about CRM (Crew Resources Management). These are the topics that I have frequently mentioned about in my website. I wish all the new entrants are of his caliber!

Till the next posting, I wish you all the best…
Captain Lim

This post is about a boy...

Well, take a good look at him. His name is Sebenaran. He is a survivor of the tsunami and was left an orphan from the tragedy. Sebenaran comes from Batam, Indonesia and lives in an orphanage. So what does Sebenaran have to do with the AirAsia story?

In fact, everything.

Sebenaran came by for a trip to our Academy at Sepang last week and he was here on a pathway of a dream. You see, since the age of seven, the only constant in his has been the fact that Sebenaran wants nothing more than to be a pilot. AirAsia was there to say, yes, like us, Sebenaran is here to tell his story, that nothing is impossible.

In this picture, seen with Sebenaran are his caretakers who made the trip from Singapore, Janet Tan Mui Hwa and Ivan Lee Yuan.

The group were down with us in Kuala Lumpur. Now, Sebenaran has never been on a plane, in fact never left Indonesia and in one day, he's been to two countries, been in two cockpits and who knows, is one step closer to living his dreams in the skies. The social media team was there to witness and maybe be a moment in his life and his dreams. This is his story.

Batch 90 was on hand at the academy to show Sebenaran some AirAsian 'hospitality'.

Sebenaran was invited to be with us here last week to have a go at most of our childhood's dream, to actually fly a plane. Upon arriving at the LCCT, he was ushered to our academy within a stone's throw away to see for himself what reaching for the skies meant. He was slightly dazed perhaps at the first flight in his life but nevertheless excited by the entire intrigue of being here and being exposed to an opportunity to live his dreams.

Sebenaran only knows a few words of English and a thread of aviation knowledge but he has never let this be an excuse for him not being able to be a pilot. He knows that financial sense is not on his side but he does not lack faith. He knows the road is long but here he is agianst all the odds, having a peek at his dreams. Standing by his side for that short glmpse at his ambition and his determination to make it a reality, we say that we are privileged to share this moment in him living his dreams.

Sebenaran before stepping into his 'dreams'. The simulator beckons.

All smiles with Gavin Andrews, the standby engineer before takeoff, we swear that Sebenaran was never nervous. In fact, he was all the while raring to go. Sebenaran took us on a ride through rain, thunderstorm, turbulence and at the end, bursting through the sunshine. Can anyone doubt that this kid will make it one day? :)

It was an experience to remember and we were glad to be the bystander in this experience. We remember Sebenaran saying and summarising it best, "Saya takut tinggi. Tapi lain kali saya nak terbang beratus-ratus nyawa dan saya tak boleh takut. Oleh itu, saya beritahu diri sendiri bahawa saya perlu berani." (I am afraid. I am afraid of heights. But if I am to fly the lives of hundreds of passengers, I can not be afraid. Because of that, I told myself that I have to be brave.) With this conviction, AirAsia says yes, we can get there together. Now, everyone can truly fly.

Social media team signing off with lots of love for Sebenaran and Batam.

Believe the unbelievable,
Dream the impossible,
Never take no for an answer.