She had to answer to her commandant at the Sungai Besi air base for that. Her colleagues warned her that her days in the Royal Malaysian Air Force could be numbered. Not too many officers survived after standing up to senior officers, even if the seniors were in the wrong.
But military air traffic controller Rasaletchumi Ratnasingam was not sacked. Instead, she earned a commendation. Her no-nonsense attitude has since won her accolades.
In the incident, the commandant asked her sternly the reasons for the refusal, which could be seen as insubordination against a top officer.
“I explained to him the fire and rescue category did not meet the minimum requirement to allow that particular flight to take off. If anything untoward were to have happened, I would be held responsible because I was in charge as an air traffic control officer on that day,” she recalls.
A week later, she was called in again – this time to be congratulated for standing by her oath of office. The commendation letter came from none other than the officer who had been stopped from taking off.
Over a 25-year career in the air force, Rasaletchumi became known as “Madam No Nonsense” for going by the book and not allowing anyone to take shortcuts.
She was one of the first two female cadets commissioned as RMAF officers in 1975, when she was just in her early 20s.
“I know they called me by this nickname but that did not deter me from being strict as the job of an air traffic controller is very important. As far as I was concerned, there is no room for error. One slight mistake will result in a disaster,” she said.
Rasaletchumi retired with the rank of major in 2001. Her last appointment was that of commanding officer of the joint air traffic control centre in Subang.
She applied to join the RMAF a few years after leaving school, after a stint as a teacher.
“My traditional-minded parents were obviously not too happy but they did not stop me either.
“I was a good sportswoman and active in outdoor activities like hiking; being a uniformed officer was an attractive idea. I was looking forward to the tough military training,” she said.
She and fellow woman cadet Fajariah Abbas were the only two from about 30 trainees to be selected.
“During one jungle crawl training, we had to do it with cow dung spread on the ground. Can you imagine how we all would have felt with the dung all over our bodies and faces? However, this and many other aspects made me the officer I was. I will not take any nonsense,” she said.
Rasaletchumi said she put this discipline into use as an air traffic controller at various RMAF bases including Kuala Lumpur and Kuantan. Passion and dedication, she said, was high during her days, with the love for the nation coming first when donning the air force uniform.
She was the first woman officer to be sent to Australia for training as an air traffic control officer twice in the first few years of her service. Another first as a woman officer was when she was sent to Singapore as a detachment commander.
Her passion for punctuality and going strictly by the book sometimes caused frayed tempers while keeping her subordinates in check.
She recalled a time when she threw a phone at the control tower’s glass structure. “Someone had tried to take a shortcut in carrying out an important order. I just flung the telephone and it hit the glass structure. Thank God, it was double-layered so the damage was contained,” she said with a sheepish chuckle.
Rasaletchumi scored another first when, as a captain, she was awarded the Kesatria Angkatan Tentera medal for exemplary services, which is only awarded to officers with the rank of major and above.
It came after she was assigned to be the officer accompanying the British air force chief’s wife during his official visit. “He sent a letter praising some of my actions to our air force chief” who recommended her for the KAT award despite opposition from the defence ministry because of her rank.
Rasaletchumi has not stopped working since she retired from the RMAF in 2001. “I joined the aviation field in the private sector soon after leaving and I am still in the same field.”
She is currently with Aerohandlers (part of the Sapura group) and does not plan to leave any time soon.
Asked why she had chosen to remain single despite coming from a traditional family which would have pushed her into marriage, she laughed and said: “My head was in the clouds as I was so passionately engrossed in my work in the air traffic control tower, and enjoying it so much that I forgot about marriage.”