Passengers tell of terror on aircraft

Published on 23/11/2012 03:18

Passengers evacuated from two aeroplanes during separate incidents just over a week apart have spoken of their concern at the way in which the “terrifying” ordeals were dealt with.

Craig Gourlay, 35, from Lanarkshire, said he and his family struggled to see as thick smoke filled the cabin of a plane which had just landed at Glasgow Airport on 11 October.

The Boeing 757, operated by Thomas Cook from Dalaman in Turkey, was evacuated on the runway.

Mr Gourlay said: “The cabin started to fill with thick smoke and we simply could not see how we could get out. It was truly terrifying. An air stewardess was screaming about a ‘fire situation’ so we moved as quickly as we could.”

In a separate incident on 19 October, a Jet2-operated flight was forced to abort its take-off from Glasgow Airport because smoke was detected in the cabin.

Elizabeth Rush, 70, from Lanark, suffered a leg injury in the emergency evacuation of the Alicante-bound Boeing 737.

The retired nurse, who uses a walking stick, said she was looking forward to a break with her husband John, 71.

“The evacuation process was chaos,” she said.