Oman Air flight from Zurich made an emergency landing in Turkey on Sunday, Feb 9, following a fault in cabin pressure, said a statement released by the airlines besides assuring that it is working together with the airport staff from Turkey to minimize inconvenience caused due to the landing in Diyarbakir. The flight WY 154 was headed to Muscat when it made the landing.
Several passengers posted pictures and videos of the emergency landing. The passengers said that they could hear the captain screaming for an emergency landing. Oman Air and the passengers said that the flight landed safely but passengers could not help think otherwise while talking to the media.
Video shows the captain screaming
One of the passengers captured the video during the emergency landing. Belinda Pfister, the passenger, told Reuters that they were on the flight to Muscat when the cabin went dark and her boyfriend could hear the captain screaming for an emergency landing. She elaborated on the situation and said that nobody was able to comprehend what was happening and when the masks came down everyone was panicking.
Another passenger told a news agency that they were frightened because things could have gone downhill due to the terrain of the region.
The passengers have been accommodated in local hotels and the airline is said to be sending a replacement aircraft to Turkey from Muscat, Oman at 8 PM local time. No one was hurt during the incident. The issue with the flight was found at around 3 AM, while the flight was flying over the Turkey-Syria border.
A passenger from India said that the cabin was filled with smoke after the malfunction. Most of the passengers were sleeping at the time but some people said that they saw the flight crew running with fire extinguishers. The flight left Zurich at 9.30 PM on Saturday and was set to land in Oman at 7.05 AM on Sunday.
Issues with air travel
In the past few weeks, there have been several events of malfunctions with passenger aircraft. Last week Pegasus flight Boeing 737 skidded off the runway in Turkey's Sabiha Gokcen airport. Most of the 183 passengers and cabin crew survived but many were injured.
Another similar incident reported was the landing of the Airbus flight A319 of Iran Air which skidded off the runway during landing. All the 102 passengers aboard were reported to be safe. The airlines and the news reports said that the landing was difficult due to faulty landing gear. It is unknown whether the weather conditions had any influence on the landing or flight.
