IRISH holidaymakers last night lifted the lid on their terror after an Aer Lingus flight ran low on fuel, with one telling us: “I thought we were all going to die.”
The Irish Sun revealed this week how an evening flight from Lanzarote to Dublin was forced to divert to Shannon.
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It’s claimed the diversion of flight EI779 on Wednesday night was because no one realised the runway at Dublin was shut for maintenance work.
Speaking to the Irish Sun, traumatised travellers laid bare the panic that gripped the diverted plane when an announcement was made on the approach to Shannon telling them what to do if an evacuation was needed.
Ciara Kenny, who was returning from the Canary Island hotspot after a holiday with her two best friends, told us: “The flight was going ok. I was sitting at the window seat and noticed that we were not on the right flight path back to Dublin.
“Then we saw an engineer guy go up to the cockpit and shortly afterwards an announcement was made that we were diverting to Shannon due to technical difficulties.
“I didn’t want to seem panicked, my friend beside me was a little upset so I couldn’t let her see my panic.
“At first I thought it was the plane (that the plane had a mechanical failure). Once we landed in Shannon I had a sigh of relief to be honest.
“We stayed on the plane for around 40 minutes to an hour I would say while refuelling took place.
“The pilot and staff were calm and thankfully we got home safe.”
Passengers revealed how the horror ordeal unfolded as they approached Dublin.
It is claimed the diversion was caused due to a blunder in failing to realise the main runway at Dublin was closed for maintenance works late on Wednesday night.
Ciara, from Bray, Co Wicklow, described the diversion while low on fuel as a “scary” end to a holiday in the sun.
The childminder, 43, said: “I thought we were screwed when we couldn’t land in Dublin.
“People were panicking, we all panicked.
“We heard technical difficulties and we thought there was something seriously wrong with the plane.
“You could hear people saying: ‘Oh my God’.
“I thought we were going to die. I said to my best friends: ‘If we’re going to die, we’re going to die together’.
“I’m not afraid of flying, but I was really afraid.
“There were a bunch of kids on the flight as well and I have to say I really feared the worst.
“It was only when we landed in Shannon that the pilot said there was an issue with maintenance works taking place on the runway at Dublin.
“We were low on fuel and had to refuel at Shannon. I sent texts to my family when the refuelling was happening, I was very worried. I was never so happy to get back to Dublin and get home.”
She added: “The pilot and staff were calm and did their very best. I’m very grateful to the pilot for getting us home safe, the staff on board did their best.”
The Irish Sun revealed how the Aer Lingus service on Wednesday was operated by third-party firm, Privilege Style. The Spanish charter carrier is the firm tasked with refugee removal flights to Rwanda from the UK.
Aer Lingus has apologised, saying the flight was diverted “for operational reasons but then continued to Dublin, arriving less than two hours behind schedule. We apologise to customers impacted for the delay.”
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