Passengers bleed from ears after Ryanair flight loses pressure
THIRTY-THREE Ryanair passengers were treated in hospital, some suffering bleeding from their ears, after their flight from Dublin to Croatia lost cabin pressure and had to make an emergency landing in Frankfurt.
Oxygen masks were released on flight FR7312 from Dublin to Zadar on Friday when it suddenly lost cabin pressure and diverted to Frankfurt Hahn airport.
The passengers who were hospitalised after the emergency landing were facing an 18-hour bus journey to their destination in Croatia organised by Ryanair yesterday. They were unable to fly because of the injuries they suffered to their ears.
Many of the passengers had been taken to hospital suffering from burst eardrums and have been advised by doctors not to fly for another week.
Passengers said the loss of pressure caused oxygen masks to descend and some passengers suffered earache as well as headaches and nausea.
German police said a total of 33 passengers were taken to hospital after the landing.
“In line with standard procedure, the crew deployed oxygen masks and initiated a controlled descent,” a Ryanair statement said.
A log on flightradar24.com showed the flight descending from 37,000 to 10,000 feet over a seven-minute period 80 minutes into the flight.
The Ryanair statement said the plane “landed normally and customers disembarked, where a small number received medical attention as a precaution”.
German police said 33 of the 189 passengers on board were hospitalised, some bleeding from their ears. Some were still receiving treatment yesterday. German air accident investigators said the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were being secured and crew and passengers would be interviewed.
A Spanish passenger, Minerva Galvan, tweeted that she heard a crack and suddenly there was no air in the cabin.
“Some people were bleeding from the ears and nose. Others were nervous but no one panicked,” she said.
Ms Galvan praised the cabin crew for their professionalism, but she felt that passengers “were forgotten about” after landing in Frankfurt, with some ending up sleeping on the floor. She said her Croatian boyfriend was taken to hospital and he was not allowed to fly yesterday because of injuries he suffered.
Some of the passengers were travelling home ahead of the World Cup final between Croatia and France today.
The airline said it had agreed to pay for hotels for the affected passengers but there was a “shortage of available accommodation. Ryanair sincerely apologises for any inconvenience.”