Plane drops 28,000ft in seconds after mid-air emergency

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Terrified passengers texted worried messages to their loved ones as a Virgin Australia flight from Sydney to Brisbane suddenly plunged 28,000ft within seconds. Flight VA993 suddenly lost cabin pressure at high altitude just 40 minutes after taking off at 8.30pm on Thursday.
The Boeing 737-800 immediately dropped from its 37,000ft cruising altitude down to under 10,000ft, as pilots sounded an emergency call to air traffic control. One passenger on the flight sent an urgent message to her husband when the plane began to lose altitude. Haley told her husband 'plane's dropping' in a text message, according to Network Ten.
'Emergency landing – love you,' she added. The plane continued safely at the lower altitude - where the plane doesn't need to be pressurised - until it landed in Brisbane. Footage from onboard the aircraft showed oxygen masks hanging from the overhead cabin compartments as flight attendants walked the aisle to calm passengers.
An emergency PAN call is a standard call for assistance in an urgent situation. It differs from a Mayday call, which is only issued in a life-threatening situation. Altitude graphs from Flightradar24 showed the plane's steep descent from its peak altitude of 37,000 feet.
The Virgin spokesman said no passengers or crew members were injured in the incident. He said the aircraft will be investigated by engineers and the airline will review the situation against their safety standards. The airline's guest relations workers have reached out to affected passengers.
When planes experience 'rapid' depressurisation pilots execute a drop down to a breathable altitude as quickly as possible. During the descent G-Forces remain around 1G. As the aircraft maintains a steady speed in the dive, vertical acceleration is mostly stable.
In the case of 'rapid' depressurisation, passengers could experience ear pain, or 'popping', temporary loss of hearing and headaches, according to a report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). In a previous depressurisation event, the ATSB said passengers 'also reported high levels of anxiety and feelings of panic, with associated physiological symptoms such as a 'racing heart'. 'Several passengers reported feelings of faintness, light-headedness and or tremors. Depressurisation can occur within seconds and is associated with the sound of a bang and a 'fogging' of the cabin's air. Pilots are trained to deal with such an incident, but depressurisation can still pose a danger if crew members are incapacitated by a lack of oxygen.