Fighting Crew Delays Sky Angkor Airlines Flight By Six Hours

Sometimes you hear of flights getting delayed due to misbehaving passengers, but in this case a flight was delayed because of a misbehaving crew…

Flight delayed after two crew members get into fight

This incident happened on January 17, 2025, and involves Sky Angkor Airlines flight ZA679, which was scheduled to fly from Bangkok (BKK) to Phnom Penh (PNH). The 313-mile flight was operated by a 23-year-old Airbus A321 with the registration code XU-723, and was scheduled to depart at 9:05PM and arrive at 10:20PM.

Unfortunately the flight didn’t operate as planned, though. While the aircraft was taxiing out, two crew members reportedly got into a fight. It’s not entirely clear if it was the two pilots who got into a fight, or two of the flight attendants. The initial social media post about the incident refers to pilots, while the company only acknowledges that something happened between members of the flight crew (which could be pilots or flight attendants).

Video footage from this flight was posted on TikTok, though it’s not entirely clear what’s going on. There’s some chaos, and an announcement over the PA to “please be calm” and to “buckle up, please,” with a loud banging noise in the background, plus the flight attendant call button constantly going off.

As a result of the disturbance, the plane was forced to return to the gate.

The situation was so bad that the crew had to be replaced. Since this wasn’t a hub, it took quite some time to arrange that. The flight ended up taking off from Bangkok around six hours behind schedule, at 3:00AM, and landed in Phnom Penh at 3:53AM. Ouch!

The airline has apologized and disciplined the crew

Sky Angkor Airlines has reiterated that it has conducted a thorough investigation into the incident to prevent a similar recurrence in the future, including taking action against the two crew members involved (we don’t know if they were terminated, or what).

The airline has released the following statement regarding the incident:

“To minimise the inconvenience to our passengers, we provided meals and beverages, and during the return journey, our Managing Director personally extended apologies to each passenger and offered individual compensation.”

“Furthermore, we are strengthening training programmes for relevant departments to ensure passenger safety and improve service quality. We sincerely apologise for any concern or inconvenience caused to our passengers. At Sky Angkor Airlines, please be assured that safety remains our top priority.”

Obviously it’s normal for disagreements to happen between people in virtually any organization. However, to have a crew on duty get into a fight while an aircraft is underway is simply completely unacceptable, no matter how you slice it. The optics are horrible, it can be incredibly costly, and it shows a disregard for safety and crew resource management.

Nonetheless, we see this happen every so often, even here in the United States. For example, in July 2022, an Alaska flight was delayed after the pilots reportedly couldn’t get along. This happened after the plane had pushed back and started its taxi, and one of the pilots even announced that the delay was “due to a failure to get along” with the first officer, and that he was leaving the plane “in the interest of safety.”

Bottom line

A Sky Angkor Airlines flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh was delayed by roughly after six hours, after two fighting crew members caused the aircraft to return to the gate. Not only is this a bad look for the airline, but it shows a concerning lack of professionalism.

What do you make of this feuding crew incident?