A Tayside passenger on board a plane that made an aborted take-off on Friday at Glasgow Airport says it was “one of the worst experiences” of his life.
Monifieth solicitor Alan Masterton (54) and wife Sandra were on the Alicante-bound Jet2 aircraft when the pilot slammed on the brakes as smoke started to fill the cabin.
Twenty passengers were injured in the rush to evacuate using emergency chutes. Six of them attended hospital, with one being detained.
Mr Masteton said: “The crew had done the safety procedures and we were sitting at the end of the runway, ready for take-off. Almost immediately after they hit the throttle acrid black smoke started coming up through the floor.
“I thought it was unreal for a minute. Then my wife turned to me and said ‘That doesn’t look right’.
“People sitting behind me said flames were coming out of the right-hand-side engine. I looked towards the crew and they were clearly distressed at what was happening.
“It was then that I knew there was a problem, but it felt to me that we were going to take off because the plane was continuing to accelerate.
“Just at the point when the thing was going to lift, he slammed the anchors on. It was terrifying, one of the worst experiences of my life.”
As soon as the plane stopped the doors “flew off” and oxygen masks fell from above, said father-of-four Mr Masterton.
“Some people went into panic mode. Some even popped the lockers, trying to get bags. The gangway filled with people almost instantly.”
Mr Masterton said he shoved his wife into “the flow of the traffic to get her out” and made his own way to the front exit.
“We got separated in the melee but, when I got off, I saw Sandra on the wing with about 30 other people, who were waiting to go down the inflatable. I went straight over to give her a hand and to help other people slide off the wing.”
Mr Masterton and his wife were uninjured and his first thought was to contact his four sons.
“It was 15 minutes before we got back to the terminal because there were various head counts going on. Once we got back to the holding area I phoned my sons straight away.”
Continued…
Mr Masterton was waiting to catch a replacement flight to Alicante when The Courier spoke to him.
“We’re fine now but a bit shaken up,” he said. “I’m just glad we got off safely. The crew were very professional and the captain was definitely the last guy off.”
The emergency happened on a 737 plane destined for Spain at about 7.40am.
Passenger Jean Walker said some people had to jump from the aircraft wing to the ground.
She said: “It was terrifying. We were about to take off and the plane started shuddering and there were lights flashing and smoke and the crew started shouting ‘Get out, get out’. We were sitting at the wing and the girl opened the door and we went out on the wing, but there wasn’t a chute there.
“There were about eight or 10 of us on the wing and I was saying people couldn’t come out because there was no chute. Two girls jumped off the wing on to the ground. They were OK.
“Other people got hurt coming down the chutes they were inflated, but the hostesses were just shouting ‘Jump, jump’ and people were just banging into each other at the bottom, and about four people were taken to hospital.”
Her husband Gordon Walker said: “You better believe it was terrifying. The stewardesses were panicking and shouting at people to go one way, then the other. It all happened really quick and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Graham Divers, from Glasgow, said: “I could smell smoke as we were accelerating hard. One or two passengers, including myself, had our reading light on and when I looked up to the lamps and the ceiling, I could actually see smoke swirling around and I thought ‘Oops, there’s something not right here’.
“We were accelerating very, very hard down the runway at this stage and I was about to scream out to the cabin crew when obviously the pilot realised there was something wrong and he immediately throttled the engines back and put the brakes on. It’s the hardest braking I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
A statement from Jet2 said: “This morning’s flight LS177 from Glasgow Airport to Alicante made an emergency stop on the runway just prior to take-off. The aircraft was forced to curtail take-off due to smoke in the cabin.
“All 189 passengers have disembarked the aircraft.”
Glasgow Airport said seven flights were cancelled following the evacuation.
The Jet2 passengers due to travel to Alicante left Glasgow Airport on another aircraft at around 3.30pm.
The evacuation comes after around 60 passengers had to flee a Thomas Cook plane by emergency chutes when the cabin filled with smoke after landing at Glasgow Airport earlier this month.
The flight from Turkey touched down on October 11 as normal and was on the stand when the incident happened.
Photo by Twitter user Barry Gemmell
Mr Masterton was waiting to catch a replacement flight to Alicante when The Courier spoke to him.
“We’re fine now but a bit shaken up,” he said. “I’m just glad we got off safely. The crew were very professional and the captain was definitely the last guy off.”
The emergency happened on a 737 plane destined for Spain at about 7.40am.
Passenger Jean Walker said some people had to jump from the aircraft wing to the ground.
She said: “It was terrifying. We were about to take off and the plane started shuddering and there were lights flashing and smoke and the crew started shouting ‘Get out, get out’. We were sitting at the wing and the girl opened the door and we went out on the wing, but there wasn’t a chute there.
“There were about eight or 10 of us on the wing and I was saying people couldn’t come out because there was no chute. Two girls jumped off the wing on to the ground. They were OK.
“Other people got hurt coming down the chutes they were inflated, but the hostesses were just shouting ‘Jump, jump’ and people were just banging into each other at the bottom, and about four people were taken to hospital.”
Her husband Gordon Walker said: “You better believe it was terrifying. The stewardesses were panicking and shouting at people to go one way, then the other. It all happened really quick and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Graham Divers, from Glasgow, said: “I could smell smoke as we were accelerating hard. One or two passengers, including myself, had our reading light on and when I looked up to the lamps and the ceiling, I could actually see smoke swirling around and I thought ‘Oops, there’s something not right here’.
“We were accelerating very, very hard down the runway at this stage and I was about to scream out to the cabin crew when obviously the pilot realised there was something wrong and he immediately throttled the engines back and put the brakes on. It’s the hardest braking I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
A statement from Jet2 said: “This morning’s flight LS177 from Glasgow Airport to Alicante made an emergency stop on the runway just prior to take-off. The aircraft was forced to curtail take-off due to smoke in the cabin.
“All 189 passengers have disembarked the aircraft.”
Glasgow Airport said seven flights were cancelled following the evacuation.
The Jet2 passengers due to travel to Alicante left Glasgow Airport on another aircraft at around 3.30pm.
The evacuation comes after around 60 passengers had to flee a Thomas Cook plane by emergency chutes when the cabin filled with smoke after landing at Glasgow Airport earlier this month.
The flight from Turkey touched down on October 11 as normal and was on the stand when the incident happened.
Photo by Twitter user Barry Gemmell