Hysterical crew panicked us, say air passengers

SHAKEN air passengers have told how flight crew became ‘hysterical’ after announcing an emergency – before oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling.

It was reported that the Indonesia AirAsia flight from Perth, Australia, to Bali dropped around 20,000 feet in a few minutes – which is standard practice in the event of cabin depressurisation.

Flight QZ535 diverted and returned safely on Sunday to Perth Airport, where many of the 145 passengers criticised the alarmist behaviour of the crew.

‘The panic was escalated because of the behaviour of staff who were screaming, looked tearful and shocked,’ passenger Clare Askew said.

And Mark Bailey told Seven Network television: ‘Hostesses started screaming: “Emergency, emergency.” They just went hysterical. There was no real panic before that, then everyone panicked.’

In a statement, AirAsia said that the flight was diverted after a ‘technical issue’. ‘We commend our pilots for landing the aircraft safely and complying with standard operating procedure,’ Capt Ling Liong Tien, AirAsia Group’s head of safety, said.