British Airways' double emergency landing nightmare
BA passengers endure two emergency landings in two hours
Tourists were left screaming in terror as they endured two emergency landings in just two hours.
Panic spread as a BA plane bound for Malaga was hit by mechanical problems hours after a Glasgow-London jet with many of the same people on board fell through the air.
Now furious passengers are demanding an apology from BA for their double ordeal.
Passengers, including kids and OAPs, were left in fear as the cabin pressure dropped and oxygen masks came down from the ceiling of their plane from Glasgow to London.
The BA2957 flight, with 116 passengers on board, was met by fire engines at Gatwick airport as it made an emergency landing.
Just a couple of hours later, many of the passengers affected had caught an onward flight to Malaga.
But the plane on the BA2714 flight, which had 124 passengers, developed a landing gear fault 30 minutes into the journey.
Oxygen masks dropped again as the pilot ordered an emergency landing and turned back.
Yesterday, one of the passengers hit by the double emergency on Thursday said: "There are a lot of very upset passengers."
And he questioned whether there were safety issues with the planes, which were both 737s.
TV cameraman Gordon Ross, 50, from Strathaven, Lanarkshire, said: "There was an old lady on the second flight who was inconsolable. But there was no support. The crew seemed uninterested when I said we'd gone through two of these flights in the same day. They just said it was unlucky.
"I spoke to several people who were on both flights and they seemed very upset by it all."
Gordon added: "To have two emergency landings in a row is pretty worrying. The fact BA did not even apologise to us seems incredible to me."
He said the first sign that something was wrong came minutes into his 10am flight from Glasgow.
He said: "The craft lost pressure at about 35,000ft and the oxygen masks were deployed. People were a bit hysterical.
"I came off the flight and was glad I had survived and the plane had landed safely.
"Nobody apologised but the captain did say anyone who wanted counselling would be given it. He kind of laughed and said he didn't think anyone would want that."
Gordon and several other passengers from the Glasgow flight then boarded a 1.35pm flight to Malaga.
The dad-of-one added: "All of a sudden there was mad panic on board. I could hear the landing gear going down.
"The captain said that there was an emergency situation with the landing gear. When we landed, the fire engines were chasing us."
Gordon added: "There are probably a lot of very upset passengers. It also made me think whether it draws into question the safety of the aircraft. I get on flights probably every week so I am a reasonably confident traveller. But this has left me very shaken."
A BA spokesman last night offered an apology and said they were investigating the cause of the loss of cabin pressure on the first flight.
He added:"The captain of the BA2714 from Gatwick to Malaga elected to return shortly after take-off due to a technical problem with the aircraft."
Comments
I am flying approximately once every week since 1986. I recollect 2 such incidents were the cabin pressure failed and oxygen masks came down. Both flights were with Lufthansa. We heard a deafening noise, the ears popped, the plane took a slighty steeper dive and levelled at around 1,600 metres. We then finished our drinks and used the oxygen masks. Yes, people were very quiet and worried but nobody screamed or panicked. The pilot explained what had happened and that was it. We then enjoyed a rather low and therefore very scenic flight to e.g. Munich airport. A Red Cross car followed the plane and waited at the gate for passengers with problems - nobody reported.
Voilá, you guys over there on that northern island are wimps!
Cheers,
Michael
While mechanical faults can occur and one assumes be dealt with well by the flight crew (as seems the case here) and then by the ground maintenance people and authorities, the lack of a human factor response by the BA flight crew and ground staff is appalling.
Last year on Friday 02 Jul 2010 I endured a long haul flight from Thailand to Australia (BA 09) with a passenger with mobility problems only to find 3 of the business class and 1 of the first toilets were not working. I also trod through foul effluent that had leaked from one of the toilets onto the floor of business class cabin.
When I complained to the BA complaints people the upshot was they pretty much came up with a response that they didn't intend to do anything in the way of compensation aprt form offering to replace the pair of socks that had been stained.
The relevant authority to whom I also complained advised me there was nothing they could do as there was no law requiring that a certain number of toilets be available.
I then made my decision to do the only thing I could - boycott BA.
To date in the almost 1 year since then I have purchased international tickets to the value of about GBP 300,000 (I buy a lot of tickets to move patients around the world) About 50% - 60% of these could have been with BA but were not. BA lost about GBP 150,000 of sales.
Voting with our money is the way to go as maybe then the once greta BA will start to really address the needs of their paying passngers.
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