Passengers describe terror as jet plunges
Flight lands safely after 20,000-feet drop
Chaos reigned aboard an Indonesia AirAsia flight that suddenly lost cabin pressure and plunged more than 20,000 feet before stabilizing, passengers said.
Passengers said they were ordered to don oxygen masks and brace for impact Sunday on Flight QZ535 from Perth, Australia, bound for the Indonesian tourist island of Bali.
Glenyce Regan told Australia’s 7 News she started to pray as a woman next to her scribbled a goodbye message in a notepad.
“I could feel (the loss of pressure) from breathing because I’ve not long ago had a heart operation,” Regan said. “Then the masks dropped, and it frightened the (expletive) out of me.
The incident occurred about an hour into the flight. The plane returned safely to Perth but not before fear gripped almost everyone on board.
“The panic was escalated, because of the behavior of staff, who were screaming and looked tearful,” passenger Clare Askew said after the incident. “We look to them for reassurance, and we didn’t get any.”
Some passengers said the only English instruction they received was to “brace.” Passenger Mark Bailey said he wasn’t worried until he viewed the reaction of the crew.
“They’ve started screaming, ‘Emergency, emergency!’ ” Bailey told 7 News. “They just went hysterical. There was no real panic before that, but everyone panicked after that.”
The Australian Transit Safety Bureau said the plane depressurized at about 34,000 feet, and the “crew conducted an emergency descent to 10,000 feet.” The descent took less than 10 minutes, but at 10,000 feet, the passengers could breathe without the assist of oxygen masks. The bureau said it was interviewing the crew and gathering other information as part of its investigation.
The budget airline said in a statement the pilot turned back “following a technical issue” but did not elaborate on the cause.
“The safety of our guests is our utmost priority,” the statement said. “AirAsia Indonesia apologizes for any inconvenience caused.”
In June, an AirAsia flight bound for Kuala Lumpur had to turn back after an explosion was heard and an engine failed.