ShyTorque the guy did the safe thing and correctly landed at Penang for a gas topup. You cant blame him for that, only that his command of English isnt good. Some airlines do not train there pilots in how to speak to passengers and get the message across effectively without starting a panic. I hear MAS is one of them. Of course the correct address should have been "Ladys and gentleman. Due to headwinds/ATC/whatever we will have to land enroute at Penang airport for fuel. We will land in XX minutes. We apologise for this and will do all we can to minimise our time on the ground there and resume our flight blah blah" or words to that effect. You must remember that a lot of these 3rd world countries (and I live in a bloodey textbook one!) primarily use there own funny dialects and local languages and are not proficient in English. Perhaps he explained it in his own local home-grown lingo fairly well (national carriers very often use there own lingo over the PA first then do the same in English). So were the natives on board paniky too?
If the passenger you mentioned was going to a meeting in Penang then silly him for not giving himself a safety buffer between the ETA and the meeting time itself. Ive got no sympathy for those who plan these things so stupidley. What idiot doesnt build in a buffer (perhaps 24 hours for a longhaul trip) to cover any contingencies that might delay arrival for an important event? Also the flight wouldve been much further delayed from the loaders having to search through 8 tonnes of bags looking for his lordships particular one if he got off in Penang. That would have really p!ssed the other 399 of you off and perhaps encroached in the crews Duty Time limits, exasperating a FURTHER delay due to crew changes.
Unless the full facts and circumstances about the incorrect taxyway are known Im not saying a thing. Taxy cockups can invariabley be caused by absolutely anything or a string of anythings and not necessarily the crews fault. HKG (old Kai Tak) was a bloody nightmare on a bad day.
I hardly think it warranted a CHIRP Shy. A CHIRP is meant for safety-encroachment reporting. Thats where its true value lies. MAS didnt encroach on safety during the event you discribed. All it did was scare the sh!t out of everyone due to ineffective comunication. I wouldve sent you the same reply as the CAA did. A nasty letter to the airline and a "letters to the editor" contribution in a newspaper back home wouldve been enough perhaps?