UK NEWS
TERROR AS RYANAIR JET DIVES 26,000 FT
TERROR: The moment oxygen masks dropped on the plunging jet
By Nick Fagge
PASSENGERS on a packed holiday jet were convinced they were about to die when the cabin lost pressure and it plunged 26,000ft.
The 168 terrified tourists, many of them Britons on their way to Spain’s Costa Brava, fought to breathe and grappled frantically for oxygen masks.
The Bristol-to-Girona flight made an emergency landing at Limoges airport in central France where 21 passengers were taken to hospital suffering from damaged ear-drums and bleeding noses.
Arctic explorer Pen Hadow, who was on the Boeing 737 with his wife Mary, nine-year-old son Wilf and daughter Freya, six, relived the trauma of Flight FR9336.
He said: “Most passengers thought they were going to die. People were truly terrified.
“They thought they were going to meet their maker. It’s no exaggeration.”
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Explorer Pen Hadow
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The 46-year-old adventurer claimed passengers were left in limbo in the first 15 minutes of the emergency with no announcement from the Ryanair pilot or crew.
The incident came less than a week after 154 Spanair passengers were burned alive when their jet turned into a fireball after breaking in half on take-off at Madrid’s Barajas airport.
Mr Hadow, from Yelverton in Devon, said the high-altitude drama began with a “strange sound of rushing air” followed by an “immediate drop in temperature.”
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They thought they were going to meet their maker. It’s no exaggeration.
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Arctic explorer Pen Hadow
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He added: “You think to yourself ‘God, is there a hole in the aircraft? It felt like someone had opened a door. It was incredibly cold.
“The masks dropped with a clatter and for the first second or two nobody knew what was happening. There was no announcement.
“It was obvious there was depressurisation in the cabin but there was no announcement and no evidence of the cabin crew for most of this experience.
“Why didn’t they give a few more calming words?”
Another passenger, Paul Smith, from Axminster, Devon, said he felt the plane was about to crash. Mr Smith, 42, travelling with wife Anita, 40, and three children, Patrick, 10, Liam, nine and Sophie, four, said: “The worst was going through my mind – that I’ve got my whole family here and it will be the end. I thought we were going to die.
“The kids were in a panic. Patrick said to me ‘Dad, I’m never getting on a plane again’.” The anxiety of many was compounded by their belief that oxygen masks were not working properly.
Mr Hadow, who in 2003 became the first person to reach the North Pole unaided from Canada, said: “My mask wasn’t filling with oxygen and neither was my son’s. He was hyperventilating.”
“I could see about 20 masks and only a few were inflating. The crew didn’t seem to know what to do.
“The safety instructions tell you to give the oxygen mask a couple of tugs but it is a bit like a loo chain, you don’t known how hard to pull it in case you pull it out.”
The airline revealed the aircraft lost 26,200ft of altitude in five minutes before landing, placing a strain on passengers’ ear-drums.
Ryanair flew a replacement jet to Limoges from Stansted and transferred 127 passengers on to Girona.
The remaining 41 passengers – the injured and those too nervous to board the replacement flight – were taken by coach to Girona.
Ryanair told the Daily Express that a mechanical inspection confirmed the masks were working but “at a low-pressure setting.”
Chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “The oxygen masks were working and correct safety procedures were followed.
“The crew can’t make announcements when they have masks on. The pilot told passengers they were diverting to Limoges when he got down to 8,000ft where it was safe to take oxygen masks off.”
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