UAE | General

Passengers and cabin crew of a flight on way to Abu Dhabi escape unhurt

Passengers and cabin crew members aboard an Etihad Airways flight from Dhaka to Abu Dhabi had a miraculous escape on March 13 when a smoke detector alarm went off in one of the plane’s toilets while the aircraft was airborne, causing a fire scare mid-air.

  • By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 13:43 March 23, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Etihad offers flights to 45 destinations in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia.
  • Image Credit: WAM

Abu Dhabi: Passengers and cabin crew aboard an Etihad Airways flight from Dhaka to Abu Dhabi had a fire scare at 35,000 feet on March 13 when a smoke detector alarm in one of the plane's toilets went off.

"There was a bad fire in the toilet and people were screaming in the cabin," claimed a witness, who added that the incident took place about half way through the flight's journey. The flight had taken off 13 hours behind schedule due to fog, the person said.At the time of the incident, the Airbus A-330 had 231 passengers, two pilots and 11 cabin crew members on board. Etihad confirmed the incident to Gulf News.

"Our flight from Dhaka to Abu Dhabi on March 13 was flying at 35,000 feet when a smoke detector alarm went off in one of the aircraft's toilets because an inconsiderate passenger had lit a cigarette, which is banned on all of our flights," said Iain Burns, vice-president of corporate communications for Etihad Airways. "The cigarette lit some toilet paper which caused some small flames but these were swiftly extinguished by our alert, calm and expertly-trained cabin crew," he added.

The errant passenger couldn't be identified, Burns said, otherwise the person would have been handed over to the authorities at Abu Dhabi international airport.

Have your say
Have you ever been a part of an in-flight emergency? What happened? How was it resolved? What more can be done to increase awareness about safety measures for air travel? Tell us at letter2editor@gulfnews.com or fill in the form below.


Your comments


The users of that toilet should have been short-listed and an investigation should have taken place to arrest the responsible passengers, due to their unwise actions.
Ahmad
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 24, 2008, 13:07

Although smoking is strictly banned, still smokers cannot avoid this habit. I think the solution for this is to ban the importing of cigarettes or to confiscate all the cigarettes available in the market, because really it endangers the life of so many. Now so many teenagers are smoking and they just throw the remaining lit cigarettes anywhere which can cause fire. There are so many incidents of fire due to cigarettes thrown while lit, like cars burning, buildings and now a plane. I hope that there will be an urgent solution for this!
Rose
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: March 24, 2008, 11:48

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