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Ryanair flight makes emergency landing

by Dave Keating | August 25, 2008 at 11:34 pm

465 views | 4 Recommendations | 3 comments

UPDATE 8/27/08: Passengers on board the Ryanair flight that lost cabin pressure over France yesterday and had to make a rapid emergency landing have been complaining that the flight crew didn't offer any instructions or explanation while the crisis was happening, and that many of the passengers' air masks didn't work. One of the most vocal is actually a famous arctic explorer who was on the flight.

The polar explorer Pen Hadow, one of the 168 passengers on board, said yesterday: “I would say some people thought we were going to die. The woman sitting in the seat in front of us was whimpering.

“We were descending for about five minutes from what I assume was 30,000 or 40,000ft to 8,000ft. There was absolutely no communication from the flight crew and that added to people’s extreme fear. We really didn’t see them during the main situation at all. They didn’t say anything, they weren’t visible.”

Mr Hadow, who was flying with his wife and two children, also complained about the oxygen masks. “It was extremely variable as to who got oxygen in their masks and the cabin crew didn’t seem to know what to do.”

However Ryanair has an explanation for both of these complaints. Both the pilots and the crew would have been unable to communicate with passengers because according to safety regulations, they have to immediately put on oxygen masks at the same time as the passengers. With the masks on, they can't make announcements. If the pilots didn't put on their masks, they would pass out within 14 seconds and the plane would crash.

In relation to the masks, Ryanair has pointed out that as anyone who's listened to a plane safety demonstration knows, the oxygen masks "may not fully inflate." It is common for passengers to panic when they put on their oxygen masks because the devices only release pure oxygen rather than the fuller air we're used to breathing. So the flow is very mild and can often feel like nothing is coming out. Still, Boeing authorities are investigating the claims.

It's of course to be expected that passengers undergoing this harrowing ideal would be quite rattled by it, but it would appear that the British media is perhaps not being very responsible by exploiting their fears for headlines.

ORIGINAL STORY 8/26/08: One day after a Boeing 737 crashed in Kyrgyzstan after it lost cabin pressure, killing 68 people, another Boeing 737 lost cabin pressure and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Sudden decompression forced a Ryanair Boeing 737 en route on Monday night from Bristol to Girona in Spain to make an unscheduled landing in France, one day after another Boeing 737 lost cabin pressure and crashed in Kyrgyzstan, killing 68 passengers.

The Ryanair flight, which was carrying 168 passengers, made the unscheduled stop in Limoges, where 16 passengers were taken to hospital after experiencing ear ache, Ryanair said in a statement.

The Dublin-based no-frills airline has not released any further information, but other media reports indicated that an initial inspection of the aircraft did not reveal the cause of the decompression that had forced the pilot to make a rapid descent and land “as a safety precaution”.

A spokesman for the company said no further information was available, including the age of the aircraft and when it had last undergone maintenance.

The Ryanair incident followed a crash of an Itek Air Boeing 737 on Sunday shortly after taking off from the Bishkek, the capitol, en route to Tehran.

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phoenixesrose

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 00:59 on August 26th, 2008

Dave Keating, I like this story. It's scary stuff - I suppose as with any airline, you get what you pay for. We all gripe about the rising cost of airfare due to oil, but I really worry that despite all the nickle and diming that they do to we, the passengers, they're also doing to aircraft maintenance (see stories on the airlines that have been fined for skipping routine maintenance) and putting our lives in jeopardy.

Luckily, no one was hurt here, but it just makes me a little more nervous to fly. Good thing I'm in europe - where I can take a train to most places.

Milieunet

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 01:38 on August 26th, 2008

Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Flying is getting more and more dangerous. It's very bad for your health and the environment. May be we should stop flying.

kinga (not verified)

at 08:16 on April 28th, 2009

hey im one of the cabin crew operating on this flight...well i was cos i lost my job after that accident...why? because ryanair managment dosnt want people to know that something like that actually happened...they make us to admit the fact that we havent got any emergency...plus they didnt support us throught all investigations n didnt offered any medical n financial help...non of them did understand what we went throught!!!