A passenger on a Qatar Airways flight to Dublin that suffered severe turbulence said it was like ‘going to the top of a rollercoaster’ before dropping suddenly.
Six passengers and six crew were injured during the incident on flight QR017 from Doha on Sunday.
The plane landed safely as scheduled at Dublin Airport shortly before 1pm and was met by emergency services, including Airport Police and Fire and Rescue.
The Boeing B787-9 aircraft experienced turbulence while airborne over Turkey with eight passengers subsequently taken to hospital.
Philomena Prendergast was travelling back from Australia with her elderly aunt and uncle.
She said the flight attendants had just started their first in-flight service when the plane suddenly dropped.
“It’s like one of those rollercoaster things that you go up on and it takes you to the top and then just drops you,” she said.
“The whole plane drops, everything goes up in the sky – that’s what exactly happened with the trolleys, the food, the air hostesses.
“They just hit the ceilings and came crashing down with everything else”.
Ms Prendergast said there was a period of not knowing what was happening.
“It was a lot of screaming, a lot of crying, not knowing ‘Was this the end of it?’ – in the sense was it going to stop falling?” she said.
“When it did [stop falling] would it happen again?
“You just didn’t know what was going on”.
Ms Prendergast said it felt like the drop was between 20 and 30 seconds.
“We had read about the thing that happened in Singapore just the week before,” she said.
“When it’s happening you’re like, ‘Is this it?’
“I hadn’t met my granddaughter; she was born while I was gone… and I was thinking, ‘Will I ever even see her?’
“All these things was going through your head”.
Ms Prendergast said a lot of passengers were embracing each other.
“Everybody was hugging everybody that was next to or near them because there was a lot of people travelling on their own,” she said.
“That must have been 10-times worse.
“There was just a lot of panic afterwards even with the air hostesses not really sure either what to do [or whether] to sit down.
“The one that came down beside me, we got her into the seat across from us – one of the guys moved into his centre seat and we put her sitting there.
“It was just the total shock”.
The interior of a Qatar Airways plane. Image: Arnoux Thomas/ABACA/ABACA/PA ImagesMs Prendergast said she believes it was right for the plane to continue on to Dublin.
“There was no damage to the plane itself and most people were fine, just shocked and everything,” she said.
“I think it would have been 10-times worse to have to land at a nearby airport and take off again.
“The thoughts of actually getting up on a flight again wouldn’t have been pleasant.”
Qatar Airways has said an internal investigation is underway into the incident.
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