Tourists who miraculously survived a terrifying incident have shared their experiences after the horror they experienced on board an Irish airline Aer Lingus plane that effectively ran out of fuel mid-air. The story of the traveler was cited by The Sun.
The accident happened last Wednesday evening during a flight from Lanzarote (one of the Canary Islands) to Dublin (the capital of Ireland). However, flight EI779 did not reach its destination, in the process, the liner was diverted to Shannon (a city in Ireland). It is alleged that the reason the plane deviated from its route was that the crew did not know that the runway in Dublin was closed for maintenance that evening.
Shocked travelers spoke of the panic that gripped the diverted plane when, on approach to Shannon, flight staff announced that the plane was experiencing technical problems and what passengers should do if evacuation was required.
One of the tourists, who was returning from vacation with friends, shared her impressions of the disturbing flight:
“The flight was fine. I was sitting by the window and noticed that we were not flying to Dublin. We then saw the engineer climb into the cockpit and soon after it was announced that we were heading to Shannon due to technical difficulties. I was trying my best not to show that I was panicking because my friend was upset and I couldn’t allow myself to be in the same mood. At first, I thought that the plane had a mechanical malfunction. To be honest, I breathed a sigh of relief when we landed in Shannon. We stayed on the plane for 40 minutes to an hour while the refueling took place. The pilot and crew were calm and luckily we got home safely.”
Other passengers said they were terrified as they approached Dublin. So, another tourist reported that a flight with a lack of fuel was a “terrible” ending for her and many others.
“I thought we ‘screwed up’ when we couldn’t land in Dublin. People panicked, we all panicked. We heard about technical problems and thought that there were serious problems with the plane. People repeated: “Oh, my God!”. I thought we were going to die. Then I told my best friends that if we’re going to die, at least we’re going to die together.” I’m not afraid of flying, but I was scared then.
There were also a bunch of kids on the flight and I have to say I thought the worst. It wasn’t until we landed at Shannon that the pilot said there was a problem with the runway in Dublin with maintenance work.
“We were low on fuel and had to fill up in Shannon. I texted my family when the refueling was happening, I was very worried. I’ve never been so happy to be back in Dublin and back home.
The pilot and staff were calm and did their best. I am very grateful to the pilot for bringing us home safe and sound, the staff on board did their best,” said the tourist.
According to press reports, Aer Lingus was serviced by third-party firm Privilege Style on Wednesday. A Spanish charter carrier is a firm tasked with flying refugees to Rwanda from the UK.
Aer Lingus apologized to passengers and said the flight was diverted “for operational reasons, but then continued to Dublin, arriving less than two hours behind schedule. We apologize to affected customers for the delay.”