‘Staff picked themselves up, despite being injured, and continued looking after the passengers’
NT Bureau
Doha
A passenger who was on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin that experienced turbulence, during which 12 people were injured, has praised the cabin crew for their resilience, commitment to work and kindness despite the extremely challenging situation.
Speaking on Irish public service broadcaster RTE’s Today with Claire Byrne, Phil Prendergast, the passenger, praised the staff and how they picked themselves up, despite being injured, and continued looking after the passengers.
Qatar Airways flight QR017 from Doha landed at Dublin Airport shortly before 1pm on Sunday, after “experiencing turbulence while airborne over Turkey”, around two hours into the flight.
Prendergast said she believed many other injuries were prevented because passengers had kept their seatbelts on.
Eight passengers on the flight were taken to hospital after the plane landed at Dublin Airport yesterday afternoon.
Prendergast said a recent incident involving a Singapore Airlines flight – in which one person died and dozens others were injured following turbulence – was “very much in everybody’s mind”.
Prendergast said she was travelling back from Australia with her aunt and uncle, where the Singapore Airlines incident had been a big story the previous week.
Dublin Airport said all passengers were assessed for injury before disembarking the plane, and eight were taken to hospital.
Ms Prendergast said it was “chaos” when the plane “just dropped” and “everything went up.”
“Everyone was screaming,” she said.
She said the cabin crew had just begun serving food when the incident occurred.
“Everything went up. The air hostesses just went up into the air and hit the roof and back down again. It was so scary to see how fast it all happened. Even those trolleys that are really heavy can just be lifted up and back down,” she told RTE.
“I really had to coax my aunt and uncle to travel with me to Australia to visit my brother,” she said.
“But I don’t think my aunt will ever go on a plane again,” she added.
Ms Prendergast said all the passengers were grateful that the flight was able to continue onto Dublin.
Despite many people feeling very sick, everyone was scared to move, she said.
“It would have been a good half hour before anyone even got up to go to the bathroom.”
In a statement following the incident, Qatar Airways said that “a small number of passengers and crew sustained minor injuries in flight and are now receiving medical attention”, adding, that “the matter is now subject to an internal investigation.”
