Ryanair stand accused of abandoning passengers after a flight falls 26,000 feet in just seven minutes following cabin pressure loss, leaves more than 30 people needing hospitalisation.
The Ryanair flight FR7312 had been heading to Zadar, Croatia from Dublin when the cabin lost pressure and the crew made an emergency descent, going down 26,000 feet in just under seven minutes.
The crew diverted the plane to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport in Germany, where 33 of the passengers, some bleeding from the ears or nose and mouth needed to have hospital treatment in Frankfurt.
Ryanair tried to downplay the situations, first saying oxygen masks were deployed as a precaution, and the crew carried out a "controlled descent" and then "landed normally and customers disembarked, where a small number received medical attention as a precaution".
German police said that the aircraft was carrying 189 passengers, 33 of whom were hospitalised, and some decided not to continue with their journey.
"We get on the plane, we're flying and next of all the oxygen mask comes down, we're left in darkness for 15 minutes, there's no reassurance just people shouting 'emergency, emergency'," Sarah McGarry, a passenger on the flight told the Irish Times newspaper.
"There was a newborn baby and children on the flight, people are screaming and we don't know what's going on for 15 minutes . . . Then finally we're told that we're going to Germany."
Another passenger said: "It was really scary, there were three to four minutes (that felt like an hour) when the plane was falling fast and I thought we were done for".
Numerous passengers also said that Ryanair abandoned them at the airport, saying they had been given little food, no information and being forced to spend the night on a hard concrete basement floor of the airport or on old army camp beds.
Paul Wiseman used social media to say " Nightmare Ryanair flight FR7312 on way to Croatia. Emergency landing at Frankfurt. Overnight in military base camp beds- good old Ryanair style customer service. Cutting costs and more profit for Ryanair all at the expense of customer safety. Shame on you Michael O Leary"
Another said that only 100 McDonald's cheeseburgers arrived at 5 in the morning for the 189 passengers, which were paid for by the airport and not Ryanair.
Ms McGarry, who was travelling with three children, told of her eardrums bursting during the rapid descent but couldn't go to the hospital because she didn't know if she'd be able to get back to the airport for a rescheduled flight.
Ryanair said it would pay for hotels for the affected passengers, but warned there was a "shortage of available accommodation". However, we had no trouble finding hotels with availability, it just depends upon how much Ryanair was willing to pay.
“There was very little sign if at all of any Ryanair staff there." Another passenger told the media, saying "Airport staff and the German red cross were the only people I could see there who were helping. The airport staff and Red Cross did their best to handle the situation, as Ryanair were nowhere to be seen, the first communication from Ryanair was this morning with food vouchers Ryanair. They really displayed a shocking lack of empathy for their customers, almost bordering on inhumane.”
Ryanair has also said they would pay for a bus to transport those passengers who had been hospitalised and due to medical issues were not allowed to fly, to take them to Croatia.
