Until reading one of the main papers in the UK, I always thought of MAS as a safe, reliable airline. I've flown with them once from South Africa to Argentina, and the service was excellent.

I was very surprised to read of an incident involving a MAS 744 at LHR. In case some of you didn't hear, a Malaysian 747-400 landed at LHR. It's captain refused to obey ATC taxiing instructions, and requested to park at the nearest gate.

Suspicious, airport officials sent two engineers (from BA) to board the aircraft to find out why the crew were not complying with ATC. They revealed that upon landing there were less than 20 mins. worth of fuel left on-board. This is againt ICAO regulations which stipulate that there must be at least 90 mins. of contingency fuel left.

Apparently this is nothing new, and LHR had already warned MAS a number of times before.

I ask: What was the Captain thinking??!! Why did he arrive with such a small quantity of fuel- 20 mins for a 747 in such busy airspace is lethal. Apparently Korean have also been landing with low levels.

It surprises me that a CAPTAIN would allow such a situation to arise.

Over and out.