Ryan Air plane loses cabin pressure

[Rhys Xanthis]

TWENTY-SIX people were taken to hospital after a Ryanair aircraft made an unscheduled landing in France following a loss of cabin pressure.

The plane landed at Limoges International Airport at 11.30pm (7.30am AEST) as a "safety precaution", Ryanair said, adding the passengers suffered ear problems.

The Boeing 737 was flying to Barcelona-Girona airport in Spain from the southwestern British city of Bristol, when a brutal depressurisation forced the aircraft to descend 8000m in five minutes, police said.

Terrified passengers told how they had feared for their lives as the aircraft plummeted and oxygen masks dropped down.

Of the 168 passengers and seven crew, 26 were taken to hospital with minor eardrum problems, emergency workers said.

An initial inspection of the plane did reveal any causes for the depressurisation, police said.

Ryanair dispatched another aircraft to Limoges, which departed at 3.30am with 127 people who wished to immediately continue their journey.

The remaining passengers were expected to continue on to Girona later today.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/...014090,00.html

And news.com.au cant resist, by placing an unrelated QF delay just beneath the RyanAir story...

[David Ramsay]

Terrified passengers told how they had feared for their lives

Now where have I heard that before?

[Andrew McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by David Ramsay

Now where have I heard that before?

Not to mention...

...aircraft plummeted ...

[Philip Argy]

The earlier report has been re-posted under a more dramatic headline!

26 in hospital after plane's 'brutal depressurisation'


An emergency onboard a Ryanair aircraft flying from Britain to Spain has left 26 people in hospital.
The Ryanair flight was forced to make an unscheduled landing in France following a loss of cabin pressure, emergency workers said.
The plane landed at Limoges International Airport late on Monday (local time) as a "safety precaution", Ryanair said, adding the passengers were taken to hospital for ear problems.
The Boeing 737 was flying to Barcelona-Girona Airport in Spain from the south-western British city of Bristol, when a brutal depressurisation forced the aircraft to descend 8,000 metres in five minutes, police said.
Terrified passengers told how they had feared for their lives as the aircraft plummeted and oxygen masks dropped down.
Of the 168 passengers and seven crew, 26 were taken to hospital with minor eardrum problems, emergency workers said.

I'm not sure what a "brutal depressurisation" is compared to your ordianry garden variety depressurisation, but isn't the descent of 8,000 metres in five minutes more leisurely than the descent of 19,000 metres which was executed before the QF Manilla landing last month?

[Adam G]

In all fairness I can only wonder if you understand what a decompression actually involves.

First of all no commercial jet will be descending "19000 metres" - I think you maybe confusing that with feet. 8000 metres would actually be higher then the QF aircraft was. (It sounds like a descent from the upper 30000ft levels to 10000-14000ft level),

Very rapid decompressions can be very tough on the body. A rapid decompression in a large jet takes a number of seconds as the air escaping the cabin to equalise the pressure doesn't all escape iommediately (unless you have a very large gaping hole like Aloha).

Immediate effects on the human body include a forceful breath out as the air escapes from your lungs (I'm told this is not a pleasant feeling) along with air escaping from the bowel (causing in some pax intense stomach pain) and the other most common issue ear/sinsus pain for anyone with upper resp tract issues at the time - I'm sure you've experienced ear pain on a/c at some stage however I've seen this pain under normal descent rates bring grown men to tears.

The pax, often with no warning then see the aircraft make a much steeper descent then normal - during which their bodies then go through the same issues again as the pressure once again equalises in them all the way down (normally your body would only equalise from 8000-9000ft cabin altitude to aerodrome level, it'll not have to equalise from 30000ft+ level to aerodrome level). Anyone who doesn't know much about aviation would have no idea why this quicker/steeper then normal descent is occuring. The descent can also seem much louder/turbulant then normal due to the use of speed brakes. There is also heat from overhead panels (from the oxygen generators) and pax may think their oxygen isn't working due to the nature of the system (or it may not be working as they didn't pull down hard enough to activate the oxy generator).

It's not until the aircraft is stabilised that the tech crew can advise pax what is going on - until then, anyone who doesn't know better would just know something is really not right.

While decompressions aren't normally aircraft endangering events, they have much more significent impacts on the pax then a lot of other (sometimes much more serious!) events do due to the physical nature of them.

While I'm by no means a fan of the media fanfare that surronds every aircraft event around the world, I certainly understand where the quotes they get from pax come from. I've had pax screaming in moderate/severe turbulance from pure terror - I have little doubt a decompression would elicit a fair bit more terror rather quickly!

Just remember that people quoting to the media & the media themselves have little or no knowledge or aviation & how things work - then you'll understand where these comments come from.

If you're ever unlucky enough to experience a full rapid decompression, I'm sure your opinions may shift slightly...

[Nigel C]

Well said Adam.

[Daniel M]

Excellent post Adam, wholeheartedly agree. The look on some peoples faces on commercial flights when the gear drops and locks into place is bad enough, can't imagine how some people would react when a whole heap of different G forces are acting on them, the aircraft is dropping at 5000ft per minute with speed brakes out...

[Philip Argy]

Originally Posted by Adam G

[-snip-]

First of all no commercial jet will be descending "19000 metres" - I think you maybe confusing that with feet. 8000 metres would actually be higher then the QF aircraft was. (It sounds like a descent from the upper 30000ft levels to 10000-14000ft level),

[-snip-]

I did indeed read it too quickly and mistook a descent of 8,000 metres for a descent of 8,000 ft.

The usual media beat up I was jumping to illustrate was on this occasion an unfair allegation and it is withdrawn. The incident from all accounts was in fact quite serious.