Mid-air panic on return flight from Advantage Conference

Delegates at the Advantage conference were ‘frozen with fear’ when their plane went into an emergency descent on their way back from Bodrum on Monday.

Passengers on the early morning Pegasus Airlines flight, including around 40 delegates from the weekend’s conference, were ordered to get into the brace position by the captain before the plane lost altitude rapidly.

One delegate, who asked not to be named, said he was ‘literally frozen with fear’ and thought the flight was ‘doomed’.

Flight PC5121 to Gatwick had taken off from Bodrum at 7am local time and was just over an hour into the journey when the captain suddenly shouted the emergency brace command.

"He did this twice before the plane started to lose altitude rapidly," said the conference delegate, a UK sales director.

"At that point I turned to see the guy sitting next to me, Advantage chairman Steven Esom, and he was folded quite calmly already in the brace position. Some people were very agitated and scared.

"I was literally frozen with fear and believed, at that point, that this was the end."

According to the delegate, the plane levelled out after a few minutes and one of the crew explained that the plane had ‘de-pressurised’ at high altitude and had to drop immediately to a lower altitude.

Passengers were told the flight would be diverting to Istanbul, but then it changed to Izmir.

He said none of the air masks dropped down during the emergency descent and there was no further explanation as to what had happened.

"Needless to say, many people were now coming to terms with what had just happened and simply wanted to get off the plane as quick as possible. After a further half hour flying at low altitude, we touched down in Izmir airport and scurried off the plane, many phoning loved ones on the way," he explained.

After a short wait at Izmir airport, passengers were transported back on to an identical aircraft and flown to Gatwick, landing at midday, three hours later than scheduled.

"I genuinely believe the captain should not have reacted the way that he did, as by instructing passengers to brace whilst descending the aircraft in the way that he did, falsely led most (myself included) to think we were doomed," said the delegate.

Jacqui Bates, head of Lounge Pass, was also on the flight and described it as ‘a truly frightening experience’ and one she will never forget.

"There were two of us from Lounge Pass attending the conference, me and Jenny Fraser our new account manager, so we decided to get an early start and get home early," she said.

"Throughout the whole incident, from when the emergency announcement was made, there seemed a silence throughout the cabin with everyone deep in their thoughts as to the outcome. At the outset of the announcement it wasn’t too clear what was going on and my first thought was that there was perhaps a terrorist situation."

She said the Pegasus cabin crew were ‘calm and collected’ throughout the whole ordeal and were swift to move passengers through Izmir Airport and transfer us to another waiting aircraft.

"Had there been further delays transferring to a new flight many people wouldn’t have wanted to get back on the Pegasus flight again to go home," she said.

"I was surprised that the crew didn’t offer complimentary drinks or food to all affected passengers, but they did offer Jenny some water."

The UK sales director agreed. "After such an ordeal, you might expect a round of drinks to be issued to the passengers as a way of comforting them after their perceived near death experience, but not for Pegasus. It was business as usual and charging for refreshments all the way home," he said.

The airline said the flight was diverted as a ‘precautionary’ measure due to a problem with the cabin pressure.

It said passengers were quickly transferred to another flight at Izmir.

Delayed passengers on the next flight out from Gatwick were given hot meals, but a spokeswoman said there had not been enough meals on board the Izmir-Gatwick flight for the passengers involved in the diversion. She said it would have delayed the flight further if more meals had been brought on board.

"The short time frame between landing and take off meant that there was no time for guests to be given complimentary meals or drinks," said the spokeswoman.