It was way back in ’95. On a Boeing 777–200, we had a passenger load of around 250 passengers on board from Bangkok to Hong Kong. All pre-flight security checks completed-all doors armed, seat belts on, passengers and galleys secured, all emergency equipment latched. A final thumbs up to the Captain of the flight and there we took off from Bangkok for Hong Kong Kai Tak airport. With 16 cabin crew on duty a load of 250 passengers was considered to be a fairly easy flight from a flight attendants point of view.
Most of the passengers were tourists who had come to visit Thailand, some local Thai nationals and a few corporate business class passengers. Happy and easy-going passengers, that’s how they looked. As, a cabin crew, there was no stress to manage them on a 2hrs 30 min flight.
I was sitting on a L4 door as a door primary, which meant that in case of any emergency, I have a responsibility of opening this door on the Left and initiating emergency evacuation. My door assist is to be the first one to evacuate from L4 and wait for the passengers that are in our area of responsibility to follow the emergency procedure of going down the slide raft.
Take off
Our Boeing 777–200 takes off. The aircraft picks up its speed on the runway. The nose landing gear and the belly gears, all spinning to the maximum RPM. As soon as the aircraft leaves the runway and is all ready to take off from the ground, the cabin crew can hear the wheels rolling back into the body of the plane.
Three minutes into take-off and suddenly, there is a call to all station from the cockpit crew. Prepare for emergency land evacuation. The Captain came onto the PA and said, “we have a problem. We are going to have to return to Bangkok.” Then he announced, Flight Attendants to their emergency position. Reason not told to the cabin crew as yet. The aircraft proceeded to do a very sharp U-turn back to the Bangkok airport and is all set to go down for emergency land evacuation. The landing was absolutely fine and smooth.
Commands from the Cabin Crew to the Passengers
” Evacuate Evacuate”
” Seat belts off”
” Remove all sharp objects”
” Come this way”
” Hurry Hurry”
” Sit and Slide”
” Two at a time”
My door assist is the first one to go down the slide from L4 door and assist in clearing the exit for the passengers as and when they slide down. 90 seconds is the maximum time the cabin crew should take in evacuating passengers on a full load flight with all emergency doors open. 5 doors on either side makes it a total of 10 usable doors, provided the area outside the door is free from any hazard. As mentioned before, the flight was almost one-fourth vacant. Therefore, the process should have been faster. Unfortunately, there were all kinds of passengers on board, old and young, bold and weak, stuck up and easy going, which I realised during this process of evacuation.
It was made clear to the passengers to take off all sharp objects before going down the slide. Sharp objects like high heels, pointed jewellery, handbags etc. could lead to a puncture in the slide, hence deflating the slide and eventually making the exit redundant. There were some who obeyed the command, but a few of them didn’t.
Fear of Jumping Down the slide
I had a situation wherein a lady passenger of around 50 years of age hid herself in the lavatory and refused to go down the slide. It isn’t difficult to open the lavatory door from outside for a cabin crew, and that’s precisely what I did. As we were running out of time, I had no choice but to pull the belongings from her hand. I took-off her heels, made her sit on the slide raft, asked her to bend forward with her both arms raised parallel to the raft and told her to let go.
It wasn’t over just yet!
There was another passenger who did not want to leave behind his bag, when asked what is that he fears that he would lose; he said his documents. The aviation training college had engrained the procedures so well that I didn’t falter one bit in convincing him to just focus on saving his soul.
Slide and Friction
After checking my cabin area of responsibility for passengers and ensuring R4 (4th door on the right) door primary was doing good, it was my turn to go down. Again thanks to my training instructor, I clearly remember her telling us to take off our panty hose before jumping down. As it is made of pure synthetic, hence would lead to great amount of friction that could leave behind permanent burnt marks on the legs. I did exactly what she expected of us to do and jumped down the slide.
Ground Reality
With efficient and trained crew that we had, things on the ground very exactly as expected. No casualty. Evacuated passengers were all moved away from the slide ; no blocking of the exit. The ground staff ensured passengers to be taken care of mentally and physically. Fire brigade, ambulance etc. all on alert. Passengers taken to the airport, whilst the crew waited for the Captain, who was the last to evacuate the aircraft. The captain was the last one to evacuate and came across very calm. Soon, we boarded the crew bus and were taken to base.
Disclosure
The flight deck crew shared the reason of emergency with the crew- a Fire alarm went off, suggesting fire in the cargo hold of the aircraft.
Investigation
Unexpected things not only happen on ground, it can happen in air too. Guess the strangest thing that led to the alarm going off. Have you ever heard of this, no flames pouring out of the plane, no sign of smoke or fire in the compartment, yet the reason to an emergency landing is, “fire alarm forces flight to be aborted.”
Strangely, what triggered the fire alarm were these Durian fruits that tourists like to carry back with them from Thailand. It has a notorious smell, it stinks awful, it is a fruit that you will either love or despise. It’s not illegal to carry durian in a flight as long as it is wrapped properly in accordance with flight regulations. This fruit set off an alarm after it filtered through the air conditioning. The smell was not chemical gas, but gas generated from rotting durian.
End all, it was a precautionary return to Bangkok after a false cargo compartment fire warning light came on. Safety is our top priority at all times. The airline apologised to the passengers for the inconvenience caused.
Well, there you have — My account of the terrifying and awfully stinky story that lead to an unplanned emergency landing!
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Peace!✌🏻
