I just saw a news article on the BBC website about an emergency landing of a plane:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-17631534
But this got me thinking/realising some people really are thick:
"You could see the whites of the eyes of the people next to you. People were panicking but they weren't screaming or shouting," she said.
Well of course you could see the whites of their eyes if sat next to you! Why quote that? The 'original' reference to whites of their eyes was don't shoot at them until they are close wasn't it?
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Its not stupid. It indicates you have never seen anyone *really* scared. People eyes open really wide in moments of extreme alarm, and you do see much more "white"
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But you can see the whites of someone's eyes even when they are not in least bit scared.
So I still take the stance it's a stupid comment.... now I can imagine pupils might dilate and all sorts.
I think my senses were on edge when I thought I was about to die in an accident when rear-ended by an HGV in 2006.
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Unless you've looked over into the abyss and looked death in the eye, you really have no idea.
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I don't think anybody is stupid or thick here.They had a scary experience a lot of us have had in our lives.
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My question was around 'whites of their eyes'... well we all have that around our pupil so a stupid comment/quote. I am not saying they are were not frightened. But referring to their description of someone scared... as in 'you could see the whites of their eyes'.
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A chap I used to work with his eye area went black if he got annoyed strange to see.
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How did the panic manifest itself?
People were sitting in seats; they weren't shouting or screaming; so how were they panicking?
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I wonder what announcements were made. A rapid descent would be scary if you had no idea what was going on, but not a very serious concern for a cabin pressure warning and the pilots have oxygen at hand. No mention was made of the passengers oxygen masks dropping so maybe there was no actual loss of pressure.
It would be SOP for the flightdeck to deprioritise cabin announcements in any sort of emergency but I would hope that they or the cabin crew could reassure the passengers fairly quickly in those circumstances and I'd be surprised if they didn't.
The early version of the story read "three seriously injured" now changed to three examined in hospital but not needing treatment.
To add a bit of background to the story would have been easy - as it is, it reads as a problem with Ryanair which it isn't. Very poor reporting. As least it didn't mention the school they could have hit if they had missed the airport.
Granted the whites of the eyes thing is a quote, probably from one of those people who describes a broken nail as a "nightmare" but it doesn't actually sound as if there was much panic at all.
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Text book handling of a loss of cabin pressure emergency. The masks drop automatically, as described in the pre-flight briefing that the peasants don't listen to, or can be dropped by a cockpit switch. The aircraft has to reduce altitude PDQ and my guess is that the people who were "injured" did not have their seat belts fastened or were members of of cabin crew walking around.
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Bit of a non event really. I imagine that if it were not Ryanair then it would not have made the headlines.
As O'leary says - all publicity is good publicity
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Emergency landings in Europe are always news, no matter who the carrier is.
It wasn't always the case of course, before the rolling 24 hour news feed monster that needs to be fed. When I did my time at BA, I had to change overhead passenger service units a few times, cracked and sometimes bloodstained after badly turbulent flights. They never made the news.
I always keep my belt loosely fastened after that little lesson.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 6 Apr 12 at 10:09
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Not long after we were first married my wife and I were on a flight to somewhere. The aeroplane encountered (presumably unexpected) turbulence and felt as if it simply and suddenly dropped several hundred feet. Of course I've no idea if it did but that's what it felt like.
We had just been served drinks and my wife's tumbler of whisky left her table and shot towards the ceiling. In a flash she caught it and didn't spill a drop.
At that point I realised that she would indeed make it at least as an honorary Scotswoman !
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>> felt as if it simply and
>> suddenly dropped several hundred feet. Of course I've no idea if it did but that's
>> what it felt like.
It entirely feasible, it can happen like that, stuff called clear air turbulence, where you do, literally suddenly drop.
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>> We had just been served drinks and my wife's tumbler of whisky left her table
>> and shot towards the ceiling. In a flash she caught it and didn't spill a
>> drop.
So why did the whiskey not depart the glass and carry on up the ceiling?
>> At that point I realised that she would indeed make it at least as an
>> honorary Scotswoman !
I'd get the church of scotland to beatify her, clearly its a miracle, a sign.
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>>So why did the whiskey not depart the glass and carry on up the ceiling?
Because it was whisky. Much more substantial than that lightweight Irish stuff...
:-)
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I bet being a typical wimpy jock she had ice in it. Thats the answer.
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Shouldn't think so. I'd not have approved of that !
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Horses eyes really do go white when frightened, because normally it doesn't show.
But not many travel on planes, apart from the one you can take anywhere.
(neatly brings subject of whisky back to thread title)
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It's like the BBC coverage of the US fighter crash in Virgina
over a shot of two uniformed personnel, running presumably towards the incident, the voice over says 'scenes of panic' without any justification
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Seems a bit harsh to call people stupid and thick because of a quote after a frightening experience. I hope you are ready with coherent and and informative quote should it happen to you.
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'the proof of the pudding is not so much the white of the eyes but the browness of the trouser' :
textilis contacticus AD76
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I think fear is often triggered by ignorance of the situation. What proportion of the people in an aircraft are qualified pilots? I have been in a passenger aircraft when the pilot decided to pull up, turn, and apply lots of power shortly before landing, The safest option in the circumstances, (a blocked runway) but a few passengers decided that it was a good reason to scream. I can also think of normal safe procedures in a submarine that would scare the uninitiated.
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What, like opening a window?
:-))
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No windows in a submarine, do you mean the sunroof? :-)
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Emergency Landing - Are People Really Stupid? - Zero
