kabarsula EXCLUSIVE: ‘This is not Australia, you cannot shout here’: Etihad passengers slam handling of Jakarta diversion bandar SLOT INDONESIA

A Sydney travel agent has spoken out about the treatment of passengers following an Etihad diversion to Jakarta, describing screaming onboard, hours of confusion at the airport and questions over the airline’s handling of compensation claims.

Etihad flight EY455 was travelling from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on 30 July when it diverted to Jakarta due to what the airline described as a ‘technical reason’.

Sydney travel agent Gladis Mahfoud and fellow passenger Rami Jeaitani, who were onboard the flight, told Travel Weekly passengers were left distressed by a lack of information following the diversion and frustrated by Etihad’s handling of complaints afterwards.

Jeaitani said he first realised something was wrong around seven or eight hours into the flight when the remaining journey time displayed on his screen suddenly dropped to around one hour.

After asking a flight attendant what was happening, he said he was told there was a “technical issue” and the aircraft would land in Jakarta.

‘There was so much screaming’

After landing in Jakarta, passengers remained onboard for around 90 minutes to two hours while the issue was investigated.

It was during this period that Mahfoud said confusion and fear escalated as passengers could see activity which looked like smoke and fire around the aircraft’s engine via the onboard external camera feed but received little information about what was happening.

“There was so much screaming and ‘let us out’,” Mahfoud told Travel Weekly.

“We can see what the engine is like, and the people under the airplane and what’s happening. We can see, but we cannot hear.”

Jeaitani separately said passengers could see people working around the left engine while they waited onboard.

“People were not sure what’s happening,” he said.

Jeaitani said he could see one flight attendant offering passengers water but did not know where other members of the crew were at the time.

Passengers were eventually told to disembark and check their emails for further updates.

‘There were kids crying’

Jeaitani said hundreds of passengers then found themselves waiting at Jakarta Airport with little information about what would happen next.

“There were no seats in the airport, so we were sitting on the floor,” he said.

“Some people [were] standing, some people using their hand luggage to sit on them, and there were kids crying.”

Jeaitani said passengers were progressively processed by immigration in groups of around 30 between approximately 1am and 8am.

As the hours passed, frustration grew.

“After four or five hours, people started to complain and started to shout,” he said.

Jeaitani alleges a police officer ordered one passenger to stop recording the situation, while another passenger who raised her voice was told: “This is not Australia, you cannot shout here.”

He said passengers repeatedly asked airport staff and security to speak to Etihad but were unable to locate an airline representative.

“Every time we talk to security or we talk to anyone, they say, ‘Talk to Etihad’,” he said.

“Okay, where’s Etihad?”

Jeaitani said an Etihad representative eventually arrived in the morning and began assisting passengers with visa processing and accommodation.

Passports collected during visa processing

Jeaitani said passengers were asked to hand over passports as visas were processed and said he saw an Etihad representative carrying dozens of passports.

He chose to accompany the representative rather than allow his own passport to be taken without knowing where it was going.

“I’m not going to leave my passport with you without coming,” he recalled telling the representative.

Jeaitani said names were later called out as passports were returned and claimed he was able to collect several belonging to people he knew without being asked to establish his relationship to them.

Some passengers travelling on non-Australian passports were unable to obtain visas on arrival and had their passports retained until the following day, he said.

Etihad passengers question compensation

Mahfoud and Jeaitani have also questioned Etihad’s handling of complaints following the disruption.

Mahfoud told Travel Weekly she received no compensation following the incident.

Jeaitani also said he initially received no compensation after submitting a complaint to Etihad, despite providing information about expenses incurred during the disruption and losses associated with arriving late at his destination.

He said he received a generic response and reopened his case, only to receive a similar response again.

However, correspondence seen by Travel Weekly shows another passenger affected by the same incident was offered USD$300 as an “exceptional resolution”.

What is particularly concerning is the apparent inconsistency in compensation offered to passengers.
I understand that some affected passengers received $1000, while others received $300.
Meanwhile, our family and another affected family received $0.
I’ll attach screenshots. pic.twitter.com/yGwdWhSmJU

— ®️🅰️Ⓜ️ℹ️ (@RamiJeaitani) September 9, 2026

The passenger was also offered an additional 30 per cent in value if they chose to receive the amount as Etihad Money.

Jeaitani subsequently raised the issue publicly on X, questioning why passengers affected by the same disruption appeared to have received different resolutions.

He said his concern was not simply that passengers had received different outcomes, but that Etihad had not explained the criteria behind them.

Following his public posts, Jeaitani told Travel Weekly the airline contacted him and said it would reopen his case and investigate further.

Travel Weekly approached Etihad for comment on the passengers’ accounts and asked the airline to clarify its handling of the disruption and why compensation offers appeared to differ between affected passengers.