AirAsia Plane Quickly Drops 24,000 Feet in 9 Minutes; Flight Crew Causes Panic
An Indonesia AirAsia plane swiftly drops about 24,000 feet while en route from Australia to Bali. The crew aboard the said flight even caused panic among the passengers by their frantic behavior.
The plane that carried Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ535 quickly fell 23,800 feet in nine minutes, plane tracking website FlightRadar reports, after the aircraft lost cabin air pressure while it was on the way to Bali last Sunday, NBC News confirmed.
The said flight is now under investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, trying to figure out why the plane would lose air cabin pressure at 34,000 feet. Even though the plane quickly dropped to 10,000 feet, the altitude was still enough to have the cabins pressurized, which means that there is no need for oxygen masks.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Meanwhile, passengers aboard Flight QZ535 said that the cabin crew triggered panic among them when the plane began to drop rapidly. Passenger Clare Askew shared with reporters that they relied on the cabin crew for support, but were disappointed.
"The panic was escalated, because of the behavior of staff, who were screaming and looked tearful. We look to them for reassurance and we didn't get any," USA Today confirmed.
Another passenger, Mark Bailey, also observed how the frantic behavior of the cabin crew spread panic to everyone aboard the flight.
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!' They just went hysterical, there was no real panic before that, but everyone panicked after that," Bailey revealed to 7 News. Aside from that, the only English instruction that the crew gave the passengers was to "brace."
AirAsia has since apologized to the people aboard the said flight. The airline company also gave praise to their pilot and crew for aboard the flight for "landing the aircraft safely and complying with standard operating procedure."
