Pilots of a Jet Airways flight “forgot” to turn on a cabin pressure switch and had to make an emergency return to the airport after passengers started to bleed from their noses and ears.
Passengers on board Jet Airways flight 9W 697 from Mumbai to Jaipur captured video of the incident, showing frantic passengers and oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
“The B737 aircraft, with 166 guests and 5 crew landed normally in Mumbai. All guests were deplaned safely and taken to the terminal. First aid was administered to few guests who complained of ear pain, bleeding nose etc,” the statement said.
Jet Airways also said the cockpit crew has been taken off duty and that an investigation had been launched into the incident.
Passenger Darshak Hathi tweeted a video of the interior of the cabin as air pressure dropped and oxygen masks came down.
Another passenger Satish Nair tweeted a picture of himself bleeding from the nose, and complained that “the safety of passengers had been completely ignored” by the airline.
This is not the first time an incident involving Jet Airways has made the news. In January 2018, the carrier grounded two pilots following reports of a fight inside the cockpit of a flight from London to Mumbai. The flight, which was carrying 324 passengers, landed safely.
Aircraft cabins are pressurized to replicate conditions that our bodies are used to on the ground.
Air at higher altitudes is thinner, so there is less oxygen to breathe, and drier, so it increases the likelihood of nose bleeds.
