RyanAir flight experiences a 'rapid decompression'

[WINGS]

Give me a break!
The headlines make it sound like a big deal but the truth is that this aircraft made a stabilized, controlled descent to an altitude where oxygen was no longer needed and the automatically deployed oxygen masks did what they were designed to do. Pilots train for this in their yearly recurrent training.


Mid-air panic as plane plunges 26,000 feet
Passengers expected to 'meet their maker' as jet depressurizes over France
Bound for the Gerona, flight FR9336 from the UK city of Bristol was diverted to Limoges in central France after a sudden loss of cabin pressure.

updated 1 hour, 55 minutes ago
PARIS - A Ryanair plane made an emergency landing in central France after the cabin suddenly depressurized, French officials and the Irish carrier said Tuesday. Up to 26 people were hospitalized.

The Boeing 737 was carrying 141 British and 27 Spanish passengers plus six crew members from Bristol, England, to Gerona, Spain, before the urgent landing in Limoges, officials in the Haute-Vienne region said.

The "depressurization incident" caused the oxygen masks on board to deploy, a Ryanair statement said.

French officials said 26 people were hospitalized and suffered mostly from chest, nose and ear pain. Ryanair's statement said 16 people "complaining of ear ache" were taken to hospital.

'Properly terrified':rofl:
The French officials said the plane lost 26,200 feet of altitude in five minutes before the landing, which the pilot requested.

"I think it's fair to say there was muffled consternation in the first few seconds," passenger Pen Hadow told Sky News. "People were clearly suffering with the shock of it, but on the whole ... people had a stiff upper lip about it and they were resigned to their fate. They were properly terrified.

"They thought they were going to meet their maker. And that's not an exaggeration," Hadow added.

Ryanair said it brought in a second flight to carry 147 remaining passengers on to Barcelona's airport, where it landed early Tuesday.

Spain's airport authority, AENA, said the second flight arrived in Gerona around 4:20 a.m. local time. In the end, 125 passengers were on this plane, an AENA official said. She declined to comment on Spanish news reports that the rest refused to get on and said they would travel to Gerona by road.

[dfowler21]

When I was doing my CRM course at Riddle, we watched news coverage of a 727 that landed at Orlando Intl with only the nose gear and one main down. The CRM techniques were the focus of the lesson, but as a side note our instructor asked us to listen to how many times the reporter used words like "disaster" and "catastrophe" In a 3 minute story it was close to 10 times.

That said an emergency descent would be terrifying to passengers. A friend of mine got to ride with me in a Learjet on the way back from maintenance. Just using the spoilers from 10k down to 3k was enough to scare the heck out of her, and she isnt a nervous flyer.

[RF7126]

That said an emergency descent would be terrifying to passengers. A friend of mine got to ride with me in a Learjet on the way back from maintenance. Just using the spoilers from 10k down to 3k was enough to scare the heck out of her, and she isnt a nervous flyer.

+1. Even though I would know that it's standard for a decompression situation I would probably still have a panic attack. :shocked:

[glockatlanta]

Give me a break!
...Pilots train for this in their yearly recurrent training.


Sure, pilots train for it but passengers don't! For the poor schlub in the center aisle who doesn't know jack about flying, having all the masks drop in his face followed a sudden max rate descent must be a terrifying experience.

[HollowHead]

If commercial aircraft designers were really concerned about passenger comfort during an in-flight emergency, the overhead consoles would drop Depends instead of masks. HH

[larry_minn]

I can imagine how the sheep were screaming.... I had a couple flights with super MINOR incidents. And sheep PANICKED. I am talking a recycle of landing gear, small wind shear so we drop maybe 4' max.. I find calming the person ASAP (before it spreads) results in a more comfortable flight.

[HollowHead]

I had a couple flights with super MINOR incidents. And sheep PANICKED.

Next time take a flight where the entire cabin is filled with professional flight crews instead. HH

[PeterJasonMN]

The last time I landed at DTW we kept circling and circling. Finally the pilot gets on and goes "Welllllll folks, I um, don't know how quite to say this, but when we land, you'll probably see firetrucks. The nose gear didn't want to come down. We think we have it down now though."

[AK_Stick]

Flying isn't any fun unless you're pushing the envelope.



People who panic suck. The proper time to be nervous, its over, and you're thinking about how close it was.

[ATL Peach Girl]

Sure, pilots train for it but passengers don't! For the poor schlub in the center aisle who doesn't know jack about flying, having all the masks drop in his face followed a sudden max rate descent must be a terrifying experience.+1billion!!!

I am nervous about flying and to have something like that, well, I would have both wet myself AND filled my pants. :shocked:

[johnd]

In more than 7million FF miles, I have been once in a really bad crash, twice in minor crashes, a hijacking and a few mid air emergencies, 2 of which were similar, the loss of pressure and the sudden descent etc and, without exception, none of them were anything like the emergencies in the movies with all the screaming and panic.
In fact the exact opposite was the case in every case....complete silence from the passengers.
The killer crash was interesting in that no one knew what was going on until it happened and at that time, it was over...one minute we are sitting there and then next second, literally, we are in the water and Im thinking " hmmm, arent we supposed to be in the air? why are we in the water?
The most recent one, a loss of pressure and the subsequent emergeny descent was even amusing...the woman to my right said to me " can I hold your hand?"....she was scared because she didnt know what was going on and I was scared because I did. I guess the only thing I was thinking about was that I was hoping we still had the wheels on the plane....a wheels down landing is a whole lot better than a wheels up one, for sure.
In the end, we landed so the old saying still holds true: that "any flight you can walk away from was a good flight"...
Im still more scared of the average driver on the roads around here.

[WINGS]

Yep, the drive to the airport is much more dangerous than the flight you're going to take....especially on the Boston area roads.

[Santa CruZin]

If commercial aircraft designers were really concerned about passenger comfort during an in-flight emergency, the overhead consoles would drop Depends instead of masks. HH

Oh man, I'm laughin' my ASS off over here!!!! :rofl::rofl::rofl:


I don't care if the descent is controlled; if the cabin loses pressure, we start falling out of the sky at a steep rate of descent and I don't know why or can't see out the front, I'm going to taste some adrenalin.

[WINGS]

Oh man, I'm laughin' my ASS off over here!!!! :rofl::rofl::rofl:


I don't care if the descent is controlled; if the cabin loses pressure, we start falling out of the sky at a steep rate of descent and I don't know why or can't see out the front, I'm going to taste some adrenalin.

In the old days we use to train for those emergency descents, east of MIA near the Bahamas, in the actual aircraft and not the simulator. That shallow blue water there sure comes up fast when you're looking almost straight down at it.:supergrin:

[rhikdavis]

I can imagine how the sheep were screaming.... I had a couple flights with super MINOR incidents. And sheep PANICKED. I am talking a recycle of landing gear, small wind shear so we drop maybe 4' max.. I find calming the person ASAP (before it spreads) results in a more comfortable flight.

Calm them down like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_GJkKMPHxw

[ATL Peach Girl]

Calm them down like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_GJkKMPHxwdon't call me Shirley!!!! :wavey:

I love that movie!!!!

[rhikdavis]

don't call me Shirley!!!! :wavey:

I love that movie!!!!

Hey Peaches...how's sweetwater creek lookin?

[cowboywannabe]

"if God wanted man to fly...."

"he'd have given him wings Mr. Kidd".

[Santa CruZin]

In the old days we use to train for those emergency descents, east of MIA near the Bahamas, in the actual aircraft and not the simulator. That shallow blue water there sure comes up fast when you're looking almost straight down at it.:supergrin:

Yes it certainly does! I've performed my share of steep decents too; it's the sitting in the back swatting at hanging masks and not knowing why we're headed towards terra firma at 10kfpm that would have my undivided attention.

[2bgop]

In more than 7million FF miles, I have been once in a really bad crash, twice in minor crashes, a hijacking and a few mid air emergencies, 2 of which were similar, the loss of pressure and the sudden descent etc and, without exception, none of them were anything like the emergencies in the movies with all the screaming and panic.
In fact the exact opposite was the case in every case....complete silence from the passengers.
The killer crash was interesting in that no one knew what was going on until it happened and at that time, it was over...one minute we are sitting there and then next second, literally, we are in the water and Im thinking " hmmm, arent we supposed to be in the air? why are we in the water?
The most recent one, a loss of pressure and the subsequent emergeny descent was even amusing...the woman to my right said to me " can I hold your hand?"....she was scared because she didnt know what was going on and I was scared because I did. I guess the only thing I was thinking about was that I was hoping we still had the wheels on the plane....a wheels down landing is a whole lot better than a wheels up one, for sure.
In the end, we landed so the old saying still holds true: that "any flight you can walk away from was a good flight"...
Im still more scared of the average driver on the roads around here.

I don't have that many miles under my belt, but I fly most weeks and have for several years. I will be the first to admit, there are times when things happen that scare the hell out of me. I was on a flight last year that touched a wing to the ground on the landing. That was not cool at all.

[Batesmotel]

We lost pressure in a C141 Starlifter when the seal on the ramp blew out. We just sat there wondering what was happening as the pilot put us on the deck. Most guys had been sleeping and woke up when our ears poped totaly disoriented. When we leveled off the crew chief came back to check damage and told us what had happened. It was a wild ride but so fast we didn't have time to get scared until after it was over. The rest of the flight had us all on edge. I hated the C141, they were always having problems.

[Ender]

Things that give pilots a minor rush and good time, give passengers drawers full of brown.