People
on a British Airways flight that was evacuated when the cabin filled with smoke
have been criticised for taking pictures and video.
Several
people posted pictures of the moment a thick fog went through the aeroplane as
it made an emergency landing on a flight from Heathrow Airport to Valencia in
Spain.
But
after they were put on Twitter, critics asked why they were taking pictures
during an evacuation and why there was laughing in videos shot during the
emergency.
Another
person asked: ‘who has time to take pics inside and take bags when they should
be getting out?’ Meanwhile there was praise for staff for carrying out a speedy
evacuation of flight BA422 which had ‘experienced a technical issue on its
landing approach into Valencia’, according to the airline.
Gayle
Fitzpatrick, from Glasgow, who was on holiday with her husband Stephen,
described the moment smoke entered the cabin. She said: ‘It was very scary.
The
flight was just ending, and with 10 minutes to go the flight started descending
rapidly as smoke started to fill the cabin.
‘A
detector was going off saying the cabin was filling with smoke. It was like a
horrible white acrid smoke.
‘There
was chat it was an air conditioning unit. There were no communications from the
crew, some of which started to wear full oxygen masks and protective fire wear.
‘Eventually they managed to open the emergency
doors and told us to go down the chutes.

‘There
were fire engines waiting and then we were all ushered into a bus then to the
airport. ‘We are still waiting to hear what happened.
People
were crying and hyperventilating. It was genuinely scary.’
She
added: ‘We were not told it was an emergency until we had landed and they were
trying to open the cabin doors for passengers to jump down the chutes.’ Mrs Fitzpatrick
claimed passengers had been stuck at the airport for at least two hours
‘without any information at all’.
She
said groups of people were later told they could go and collect items from the
plane.
Another
passenger tweeted photos of the incident, saying: ‘Terrifying experience on
flight to Valencia. Felt like horror film.
Thankfully
everyone safe. Flight filled with smoke and had to be emergency evacuated.’
BA
added: ‘All our customers were evacuated safely by our crew and met by the
airport’s emergency services.
‘There
were 175 customers on board the flight, with six cabin crew and two pilots.
Three
customers were taken to hospital as a precaution and have since been
discharged.
‘The
safety of our customers and crew is always our highest priority.
‘In addition to our team on site, other
British Airways team members have arrived in Valencia to help our customers and
our local airport partners with anything they need.’
Source: Metro.co.uk
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