Jet’s needless evacuation is blamed on scared steward

A STEWARDESS panicked and wrongly ordered the evacuation of an airliner resulting in 10 passengers sustaining injuries, a report has disclosed.

The jet travelling to Vienna had an engine failure while it was building up to take off at London Stansted airport on March 1 last year.

Cabin crew were told to await further instructions by the pilot. However, a senior flight attendant, who claimed she did not hear the order and was scared by a banging noise, ordered an emergency evacuation.

Escape chutes were inflated and the 169 people on board were told to slide down on to the runway.

Two passengers needed hospital treatment and others suffered cuts, bruises and sprains. Some were blown over by 65mph exhaust blasts coming from the remaining working engine.

Some complained to Laudamotion, the Austrian airline which operated the flight, that they were being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The incident led to the closure of the runway for more than two hours and the diversion of 13 flights. Passengers had been exposed to a risk of “serious injury”, according to the Air Accidents

Investigation Branch. The evacuation was also hampered by passengers trying to take their luggage with them down the chutes, which could have torn them, the report said.

Laudamotion said it had improved staff training, and added in a statement: “Laudamotion welcomes the report on an engine failure at London Stansted which acknowledges Laudamotion’s subsequent safety actions.”