Malaysian hairstylist gets jail for punching Tiger Airways stewardess

A Malaysian hairstylist who assaulted a flight stewardess on board a Tiger Airways plane in February, was sentenced to five days' jail, the Straits Times reported.

Chong Nyok Kiew, 57, pleaded guilty to a charge of causing hurt to Veronica Siau Yen Ting, 26.

A district court heard today that on Feb 23, Chong had flown from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Singapore.

The report said before the flight departed, Siau told the passengers that she had placed a pair of crutches belonging to a passenger at the overhead compartment in their area.

She also told them to be careful when using the overhead compartment, it added.

Upon landing at Changi Airport, a passenger opened the overhead compartment and caused one of the crutches to fall onto Chong who began to complain about the incident.

Siau apologised to Chong, said the report.

As passengers were walking out of the plane, the report said Chong went up to Siau and demanded the flight stewardess explain why the crutch had fallen on her. She also demanded compensation.

Siau told Chong to move aside to allow other passengers to move out of the plane but Chong continued to block the passage and prevent others from leaving the aircraft, as well, it said.

Siau apologised to Chong again and asked her to calm down but Chong responded by punching her once each on her left cheek and shoulder, the report said.

The report said for voluntarily causing hurt, Chong could have been jailed for two years and fined S$5,000 (S$1 = RM2.99).