SIA Plane SQ306 Departing For London Experiences Flight Disruption Due To Storm Eunice
Those who’ve missed flying for the last 2 years will be glad that the global aviation industry is slowly starting to take off again.
However, the resumption of air travel will also come with in-flight woes that we might have forgotten about when travel came to a standstill.
For example, the fear for your life when a plane you’re in seems like it’s going to crash land.
Passengers on a Singapore Airlines (SIA) plane that landed in London had a wild ride indeed when it swerved wildly upon landing.
They reportedly prayed, cried and threw up as overhead lockers flew open and luggage flew across the cabin.
SIA flight SQ306 bound for London delayed over 5 hours
Flight SQ306 from Singapore to London on Friday (18 Feb) was scheduled to depart Changi Airport at 1.10am, according to FlightRadar24.
It ended up taking off at 6.51am—more than 5 hours after it was supposed to.
Plane had problem with pneumatics
According to a tweet from Jonathan Robins, an aviation reporter who was a passenger on the flight, the Boeing 777 he was due to travel in had a “problem with pneumatics”.
This resulted in him having to get off the plane, causing the tired man much annoyance.
He also posted a letter from SIA apologising for the flight delay, and citing “engineering requirements” as the cause.
This meant that the flight would take off only at 6.30am and land in London at 12.37pm local time.
SIA plane failed to land at Heathrow Airport in London on first try
Apparently, the plane took off without a hitch despite being more than 5 hours late.
The 13-hour-plus flight was seemingly uneventful until it reached London’s Heathrow Airport.
Unfortunately, SQ306 encountered Storm Eunice, which battered Britain with winds of 161 km/hour on Friday (18 Feb).
Thus, the plane failed to land on its 1st try, and had to circle around over London.
A netizen monitoring FlightRadar24 noted that the plane would make a 2nd landing attempt.
Plane swerves wildly on landing
This time, the plane managed to land amid strong winds but the landing was rather perilous.
It was captured on “live” on video by Big Jet TV as it approached, with the commentator remarking how it had come around 20 minutes ago on its 1st try.
The B777 landed fairly gracefully but then made an extreme swerve, with its tail going to the left, prompting an astounded, “Wooooow, no way the swing there” from the man.
He continued,
When you’re sitting on an airplane, and it’s got that amount of sway, it’s just nuts.
He compared the sensation to being “in a washing machine”.
Passengers were praying & crying
It seems that they described the experience accurately, with Mr Robins saying in a tweet that it was the “most extreme landing” of his life.
As the plane was thrown about “like a toy”, overhead lockers flew open, spewing luggage across the cabin.
He also confirmed in response to a netizen that it was the hard swerve to the left that caused the overhead lockers to burst open.
As for the passengers, they were “praying, crying, throwing up”. He then complained that it was too windy for crew to unload their bags.
Over 2-hour wait for luggage
Despite passengers barely escaping with their lives after an extended journey, their ordeal wasn’t over yet.
Mr Robins posted on Twitter again, saying their luggage hadn’t emerged yet and hundreds of people were waiting.
He wasn’t the only one. Another passenger claimed she’d been waiting for over 2 hours for her luggage, and there’d been no communication at all with them.
Another frustrated passenger asked SIA directly where her luggage was, claiming that nobody could help them.
In response, both Heathrow Airport and SIA apologised for the inconvenience and advised them to speak to staff.
A nightmare flight
It seems like for the unfortunate passengers on SQ306, it was a nightmare flight indeed, where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
However, even the best of airlines will have engineering problems, bad weather and luggage hold-ups.
Perhaps those who still haven’t been able to travel yet should at least be glad that they’re being spared the travails of modern-day aviation.
Hopefully, the passengers on SQ306 will get over their trauma soon, and get all their luggage back intact.
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Featured image adapted from Big Jet TV on YouTube.
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