Passengers on a Qantas flight from Dubbo to Sydney had a frightening experience on Monday when a fault with their plane caused an increase in cabin pressure.
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According to one of the passengers on the 6.30am flight, there was a change in cabin pressure after take-off, which left them with a number of effects including “extreme pressure in their head and ears”, feeling hot and in her case, an elevated heart rate.
A Qantas spokesman said there was “an issue with one of the valves of the pressurisation system” but stressed there was no danger to anyone’s safety and said the problem was fixed before it returned to service.
“This may have caused some passengers to experience the feeling of their ears popping. The fault was resolved and the aircraft landed without incident in Sydney,” the spokesman said.
“There was no safety of flight issues and the aircraft was inspected by engineers and the fault fixed before operating its next flight after landing in Sydney.”
“I started to feel hot and my heart started to beat faster. Everyone’s ears started to pop,” the passenger said.
“I started to feel hot and my heart started to beat faster. Everyone’s ears started to pop,”
“I called the flight attendant and said something’s not right and she agreed with me.”
The passenger said she heard a flight attendant say she was “about to push the emergency button” and also heard discussion about whether to turn back.
She was provided with oxygen to help her with her breathing and heart rate.
“The whole matter probably took three minutes but it felt a lot longer than that,” she said.
The pilot came over the radio and said there had been a problem with the pressure but it had been fixed.
The passenger said there was no further mention of the incident during the flight, other than one flight attendant asking if everybody’s ears were okay.
She said the flight was also longer than normal, arriving at 7.50am, when it would normally take just 45 minutes.
“I’ve flown around the world and caught a lot of flights and I have never experienced anything like that,” the passenger said.
The Qantas spokesman apologised for any concern for passengers but said their crew were able to handle the issue.
“Our crew are trained to deal with these types of incidents and we apologise for any inconvenience to our customers,” he said.
