Latest news with #passengerSafety
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
TfL and BTP urged to bring back blue light status for engineers
The decision to stop vehicles being used by specialist engineers from having blue lights to get to emergency situations should be reversed, the London Assembly Transport Committee has use of Transport for London's (TfL) Emergency Response Unit (ERU) vehicles using flashing lights in an emergency situation was a key recommendation made to improve passenger safety following the 7/7 London year, TfL and British Transport Police (BTP) dropped the policy after a review cited collision of the Transport Committee, Elly Baker, said the ERU vehicles, which were driven by a BTP officer, needed the sirens for the "safety and resilience" of the transport network. The blue light status had been introduced in 2012 following the London Assembly Transport Committee's report into the 7/7 its report, it recognised that the ERU played a "crucial role in the emergency response" to the 7/7 bombings and were "experts in dealing with emergencies on and around trains".However a TfL document, seen by BBC London, said the decision to remove the policy was made to minimise "collision risk"."BTP assessment confirmed incidents where our Emergency Response Units were deployed did not meet national guidelines on grade I dispatch."In a statement, BTP's Assistant Chief Constable Sean O'Callaghan said: "In preparation for the London Olympics in 2012, BTP used converted specialist vehicles for the same purpose of getting TfL engineers to emergency incidents."As a result of a review in line with the NPCC (National Police Chiefs' Council), who consider the requirements for when blue lights can be used on police vehicles, the service was reconsidered by both partners." 'Left in the dark' Commenting on their bid to reverse the decision, Ms Baker, said: "TfL's ERU has an important role in London's emergency preparedness, and its vehicles need blue light status to support the safety and resilience of our transport network."Londoners have been left in the dark about why this decision was taken and what evidence there is to support it."The Committee wants this decision reversed, and urges those behind it to provide the evidence that led to them revoking a vital part of the ERU's emergency response capability."
Irish Times
08-07-2025
- Irish Times
Man dies at Milan Bergamo Airport ‘after being sucked into plane engine'
Italy 's Bergamo airport, which offers low-cost airline connections to and from nearby Milan, was temporarily closed on Tuesday after a man died on a runway during take-off preparations for a flight. Flight operations were suspended from 10.20am until midday local time (11am Irish time) 'due to a problem that occurred on the taxiway', the airport said in a statement, adding that authorities were investigating. A spokesperson confirmed that a man had died, adding that he was neither a passenger nor a member of airport staff. According to the Ansa news agency, the man was sucked into the engine of a departing plane. He ran toward the moving aircraft, chased by airport police who were unable to stop him, it added. READ MORE The Bergamo police had no immediate comment. Spanish low-cost carrier Volotea said in a statement that following an incident with an engine of its 10.35am flight to Asturias, Spain, that 'one person who was not on board ... and has no connection with the company suffered serious injuries'. The 154 passengers on the plane were rescheduled on an afternoon flight and offered psychological support, as were crew members who may have been traumatised by the events, Volotea added. - Reuters
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Why bungling cabin crew could have been reason behind terrifying evacuation of Ryanair jet in Majorca that left passengers with broken bones as they jumped from wing
Ryanair cabin crew are being blamed for allegedly bungling the evacuation of a holiday flight that left passengers with broken bones after they were forced to jump from a wing due to a false fire alert. Several people ended up in hospital after getting seriously injured when panic spread onboard the jet from Palma in Majorca to Manchester on Saturday night. Ryanair are being urged to investigate the evacuation procedure that left at least two British citizens with broken bones and six people hospitalised. 18 were injured in total. The airline has been accused of playing down the incident by claiming passengers only suffered 'very minor injuries' like ankle sprains in a statement where they 'sincerely apologised' to those involved. Danielle Kelly, 56, whose right leg and left arm are now in plaster, claims people started 'jumping for their lives' after a member of the cabin crew with a phone to his ear ran down the plane shouting: 'Everyone get off the aircraft now, everyone evacuate'. Air crew apparently told travellers to leave behind their belongings 'in case there is a fire and the plane explodes' which, passengers said, only added to the panic. An aviation expert told MailOnline today that the cabin crew and passengers shouldn't have found out that there was a fire warning - the reason panic spreads really quickly and often unnecessarily. The expert said that cabin crew should remain calm and are trained not to evacuate until instructed by the captain over the PA. The pilot and co-pilot have a checklist to complete, include shutting down the engines and lowering the flaps, before ordering an evacuation to ensure that passengers can can slide off the wing without serious injury. In Majorca Ryanair cabin crew deployed the emergency slides at the front doors but passengers sitting in the middle claim they were left with no choice but to jump up to 18ft from the wings onto the tarmac. When done properly, the drop should be around 4ft, MailOnline understands. Ryanair has blamed 'a false fire warning light indication' - and insists that passengers only suffered 'minor injuries'. There is a possibility that passengers panicked and decided to open the overwing exits without being told to, MailOnline's expert claimed. But people on board are blaming the staff on board. Ryanair has been asked to comment. It came as traumatised passengers hit out at Ryanair after they were seriously injured jumping off the wings of a holiday jet when panic spread about a suspected fire onboard. Danielle Kelly, 56, a self-employed fitness instructor, who was sat in row 18 with her daughter, Frankie, 26, said she feared there was a terrorist onboard so followed other passengers out onto the wing in the chaos. 'I saw a member of the cabin crew run from the back to the front of the plane, he was on the phone and suddenly started shouting, "everyone get off the aircraft now, everyone evacuate".' 'It was utter chaos, passengers were screaming, 'open the doors, open the doors'. It was terrifying, I thought there was a terrorist on board, so I grabbed my daughter and got out.' Mrs Kelly, who had been on a week-long holiday in the resort of Portals with her daughter, Frankie, 26, friend Francine Elkinson, 57, and her daughter, Savannah, 26, suffered a broken right heel, fractured left wrist and smashed elbow, when she plummeted to the concrete below. Speaking from her hospital bed, in Palma, Mrs Kelly, of Whitefield, Greater Manchester, added: 'There was no announcement from the pilot or any of the other cabin crew. The door nearest to us opened and everyone ran onto the wing and started jumping off. 'I'm 56-years-old, I didn't want to jump but I feared for my life. It felt like a life or death situation. I knew as soon as I landed that I was seriously injured, I couldn't walk but the ground staff were shouting for everyone to move away from the aircraft in case it exploded. 'It was terrifying, we've been left completely traumatised by the experience. I've got my foot and arm in plaster and I've got to have three different surgeries to pin my foot, wrist and elbow tomorrow, I'm in a mess.' Mrs Elkinson, 57, also suffered a bad break to her right foot and underwent a three-hour operation yesterday, when surgeons inserted pins and plates to repair it. The company director said: 'People were screaming, 'get off the plane now,' there was no organisation, everyone was scrambling and screaming, it was complete chaos. There was no guidance about what to do from the captain or the crew. 'I was petrified, my daughter went first and was standing on the tarmac telling me to jump and she would catch me. I hit the floor and my foot blew up, I thought I had snapped it. I couldn't walk and my daughter had to drag me away. 'I was put on an airport ambulance but it took about 40 minutes for the paramedics to arrive. Danielle was crying she was in so much pain, it was horrendous. 'The way Ryanair have dealt with it is terrible, saying that people only suffered minor injuries and the evacuation was under control. Absolute rubbish, they are just trying to play it down because no one knew what they were doing.' Another passenger, who didn't want to be named, told the Mail she suffered a double fracture to her pelvis and broke a bone in her lower back when she jumped from the wing. 'A member of the cabin crew was screaming on the Tannoy for everyone to get off the plane, they were saying, 'leave your bags, the plane could explode', which obviously just made everyone panic,' she said. 'People were clambering over each other to the exits, it was chaotic. 'I'm usually a rational thinking person. No one wants to throw themselves off the wing of a plane unless the alternative is worse – everyone was led to believe it was an emergency and they had to get out immediately. 'When we got onto a bus back to the terminal people were asking a member of the cabin crew how it happened and saying it was awful. But he simply said, 'we did our best, we are only human.' But there was no direction from the crew and they just weren't very competent. There was no clear guidance, it was every man for himself.' She said doctors had told her it could be three months before she is walking again and plans to take legal action against the airline. In total 18 people were injured, with six people hospitalised as a consequence of the way the evacuation was handled. At least one female member of the cabin crew is thought to be among the injured. A Ryanair spokesman said: 'This flight from Palma to Manchester discontinued take-off due to a false fire warning light indication. 'Passengers were disembarked using the inflatable slides and returned to the terminal. 'While disembarking, a small number of passengers encountered very minor injuries (ankle sprains, etc) and crew requested immediate medical assistance. 'To minimise disruption to passengers, we quickly arranged a replacement aircraft to operate this flight, which departed Palma at 07:05 Saturday morning.
Telegraph
06-07-2025
- Telegraph
The worst flights I've ever worked
At the back of the plane, the rival stags lunged at each other, their aggression fuelled by one-litre bottles of duty-free alcohol, suspected drug use in the toilets, and the whoops of their lairy mates. Clutching the phone receiver as she repeated her call for urgent assistance from the cockpit, Kristina Galvydyte, 32, watched as her tiny fellow stewardess plunged between the men in a bid to break them up. 'It was just absolute chaos, they were screaming – imagine a night out in any British town at midnight on a Friday,' she says. 'It was like that.' Only this wasn't some high street, it was 30,000ft in the air on a flight packed with passengers somewhere between Edinburgh and Alicante. There were three stag groups on board – and just four stewardesses. One group had become verbally abusive after draining their duty-free faster than the crew could confiscate it (it's prohibited to open onboard). The second group took offence, sparking a confrontation. 'We were absolutely outnumbered,' says Galvydyte. Thankfully, her colleague's brave intervention worked – though the pandemonium continued until police boarded after landing. 'It was the worst flight I ever had,' she confirms. However, competition for that particular title is fierce. On another flight, she was 'asked to strip' by a drunken passenger; on a different occasion, a woman who'd mixed beer with medication projectile vomited on her. More tragically, she recalls colleagues working a flight where a passenger overdosed on cocaine. 'Other passengers were complaining to the crew about them,' she says. 'That's when they decided to get rid of the evidence.' She pauses, then explains how traumatised one former colleague still is. 'The whole crew was… they all had compassionate leave.' Galvydyte cuts a small figure but is no-nonsense – she makes it clear she's not easily intimidated. Yet she quit her job as a stewardess for a British-based airline (which she prefers not to name) three years ago, and says a friend still in the industry is now desperate to leave 'because of the behaviour of passengers'. Could it be even worse now? 'That's correct,' she says curtly, her disgust unmistakable. This month, Ryanair announced it would fine passengers removed from flights due to their behaviour a 'minimum' of £500 – and will continue to pursue civil damages. It's the latest move by Europe's largest airline to address an escalating, industry-wide problem. Chief executive Michael O'Leary has already called for a two-drink limit to be enforced at airports, telling The Telegraph last year: 'We don't want to begrudge people having a drink. But we don't allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000 feet.' A stewardess for six years, Galvydyte points to destinations such as party island Ibiza – where some airlines now operate a 'dry bar' – as well as Turkey and the Canary Islands, especially Tenerife, as hotspots for 'horrendous' flights. But these days, she says, any journey can take a turn. While she believes British passengers are the worst offenders, it's not just men who become aggressive. Women do too. 'They target your appearance, your accent – they observe you. It was a woman who made me cry.' She recalls that the middle-aged culprit was part of a hen do. Taking over the back of the plane, the group were loud and sweary, repeatedly shouting the 'B-word' – 'b------ on tour,' she remembers. 'I was like, 'Hey, you can't swear like that. This is a family-friendly flight…'' – but it continued. As passengers waited to disembark, the woman cornered her. 'She started telling me I was really bad at my job, that I shouldn't be working here, that I should just quit. And… really personal insults,' Galvydyte recalls. Once they left, she broke down in tears. Another stewardess tells me she was punched by a female passenger in her 50s. Still in the job after more than two decades with a British-based airline, she's asked to remain anonymous. 'She was drunk, and I'd told her I wasn't serving any more alcohol. But then she made friends with others in the row, and they gave her some,' she recalls. 'Her behaviour got more aggressive, so I told her it wasn't acceptable – and she just launched into a tirade, calling me a c---. 'We were coming in to land, and I think I asked her to sit down… and then she just stood up and punched me.' The stewardess saw it coming and turned so her face was narrowly missed – the blow landed on her shoulder instead. She and her colleagues managed to get the woman back into her seat. 'They had to bring a wheelchair because she was so leathered, she couldn't walk,' she says. Of course, there are the stereotypical lads, too. One group of young men had managed to drink so much before boarding that one vomited violently before departure and was escorted off. 'He couldn't speak, he could barely walk, he couldn't even hold his head up… I don't know how they'd got him onto the aircraft,' she says. Once in the air, two others vomited all over themselves, too. But it could just as easily be middle-aged men. 'You go to a destination like Portugal where you get groups of golfers, there is a kind of testosterone-fuelled, alcohol-induced mentality… I've had to deal with passengers in their 50s who have behaved like schoolchildren,' she says. Rowing couples also add to the charged cocktail of booze, altitude and tension. On one flight, she had to approach a 'middle-class' couple in their 40s who were loudly arguing. Fearing the woman was vulnerable, she and her colleagues coaxed her to move – only for the aggression to turn on them. 'She was saying we were flirting with her husband, that we wanted to get him on his own [so] we could get his number,' she says. Another couple's drunken row escalated into a punch-up with a father seated in front. 'The language had become unacceptable and the father turned around and said, 'You need to shut up,'' she describes. 'And within minutes you've got arguing, somebody throws a punch.' She explains how surrounding passengers often get involved. In this case, the father hit the man, and she was forced to step between them. The whole atmosphere is a tinderbox which can be sparked by as little as a reclining seat, or the yank if someone pulls on the chair in front as they stand. She explains while aeroplane doors can never be opened during flights due to air pressure, cabins are a dangerous environment in the wrong hands due to their confinement and heavy objects onboard, such as fire extinguishers and oxygen cylinders. 'Since Covid, [the bad behaviour has] stepped up a level,' she says. 'I just think people feel more entitled. Then you put them on an aircraft where they feel out of control; they're in a confined space, they're sitting around people they don't know, and there's also alcohol involved and I think [more] people are taking medication, whether prescribed or not prescribed.' The mix is lethal. While she acknowledges that alcohol consumption at airports is a problem, she believes the drinks served onboard are too large. 'The measures we serve are double measures,' she explains. Although crew can refuse service, it's a 'double-edged sword' because, at some airlines, cabin crew earn commission from sales. Galvydyte adds that the miniatures bought in duty-free are particularly tricky to confiscate, as they replicate the drinks served onboard. Former British Airways captain Nick Eades, who retired two years ago, explains that when he started out, learning to restrain a passenger was never part of training. 'But in the last few years of my career we were actually taught once a year how to use restraining kits,' he says. Only the captain can authorise their use, and only after a verbal and written warning. 'It's almost like the cabin crew have become sort of policemen,' he adds. 'Handcuffs can only be used on the authorisation of the captain once the aircraft has actually started to move on its own power, so once you taxi it away from the terminal […] You don't want to do it.' In the later stages of his career, he refused entry to passengers more frequently and admits that as long as there were three pilots – meaning two could remain in the cockpit – on some occasions he 'walked to the passenger's seat to try and quell a problem'. Whether O'Leary's new measure will make a difference is doubtful, given disruptive passengers already face hefty fines, possible criminal charges, or even prison sentences. Those caught drunk on an aircraft can be fined up to £5,000 and face up to two years in prison. If charged with endangering an aircraft, they could face up to five years behind bars. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says disruptive passengers who cause a diversion could be fined more than £10,000. The anonymous stewardess describes how police presence at destination airports has become a regular occurrence. In fact, officers appearing on the air bridge before take-off as a deterrent is now more common. Yet, as we head into peak summertime, little seems to be changing. In recent weeks alone, reports have highlighted disturbing cases, including video of an easyJet flight to Ibiza overrun by raucous Britons dubbed 'English animals' by a Spanish passenger, and a passenger escorted off a flight from Gran Canaria to Birmingham for allegedly punching crew. The stewardess is braced, she admits. 'We get so used to it,' she says, sounding numb. 'To me, that's just part of my working life.'
BBC News
04-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
7 July London bombings: Passenger safety recommendation dropped
A key recommendation made to improve passenger safety after the 7/7 London bombings has been dropped, BBC London has 2024, Transport for London's Emergency Response Unit (ERU) vehicles were driven by a British Transport Police (BTP) officer and could use blue light response capability to get specialist engineers to blue light status had been introduced in 2012 following the London Assembly Transport Committee's report into the 7/7 it was withdrawn in 2024. In a Transport for London (TfL) document, seen by BBC London, it says it was to minimise "collision risk". British Transport Police has been approached for comment. On 7 July 2005, a series of bombs was detonated on London's public transport system during the morning rush hour, killing 52 people and injuring more than committee carried out its own review to identify "lessons to be learnt". In its report, it recognised that the ERU played a "crucial role in the emergency response" to the 7/7 bombings and were "experts in dealing with emergencies on and around trains". At the time, however, the committee was "surprised" to learn the vehicles did not have blue lights, the automatic right to drive in bus lanes and had to pay the congestion recommended that TfL lobbied the government to obtain blue light status for ERU a blue light trial started in 2012 and became permanent until 2024. 'Do not meet national guidelines' The TfL document says blue lights were withdrawn last year following a says: "Blue light response capability was withdrawn to minimise collision risk. "BTP assessment confirmed incidents where our Emergency Response Units are deployed do not meet national guidelines on I grade dispatch."The ERU vehicles can still use bus lanes and do not have to pay the congestion charge, as per the recommendation made by the transport is yet to comment further. In the committee's report it was highlighted that the teams from the ERU were "experts in dealing with emergencies on and around trains, and have specialist equipment for supporting tunnels, dismantling trains, and helping to rescue people from damaged trains". The unit was regularly deployed to respond to people on the tracks, as well as other the blue lights trial was introduced in 2012, TfL said it aimed to halve the time taken to respond to incidents, and to reduce disruption and delays to 2012, Mike Brown, the then managing director for London Underground and London Rail, said: "Having the capability to travel with blue lights and sirens will mean that the specialist engineers of our Emergency Response Unit can cut through heavy traffic and respond to incidents more quickly and so restore services more swiftly for our customers." In 2012, Alan Pacey, the then BTP Assistant Chief Constable, said of the scheme: "Passenger safety will be improved by using 'blue lights' to get engineers and equipment to the scene of incidents as quickly as possible."Stuck trains will be freed from tunnels more quickly, enhancing passenger safety. "By getting the line moving sooner there will also be fewer crowd safety issues in and around stations."Once at the scene the officer driving the ERU vehicle will perform regular policing duties and work alongside colleagues to resolve any crime or safety issues and help get the system moving." Most of the other recommendations in the report and a report made by a coroner have been implemented including the introduction of new radio systems and new pre-agreed meeting points at incidents for the emergency services.
