Ryanair crew have been praised after a passenger fell unwell on a flight from Italy to Dublin.
The passenger, a middle-aged woman, took ill about an hour into the flight from Palermo to Dublin Airport on Thursday. The man sitting in front of her, Paul Smith, spoke to Dublin Live about the scary incident.
He said: "They quickly swapped front and rear cabin crew, I’m guessing to bring a fluent Italian speaker closer. When she arrived the male lead steward calmly said to his young female colleague several times: 'Take control and own the situation'.
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"By this stage they had the ill woman stretched out across three seats, she appeared to be drifting in and out of consciousness, suggesting that she hadn’t eaten." Paul said that there was lots of commotion aboard the plane as passengers began to wonder what was going on.
He said: "Many anxious passengers were standing up in the aisle trying to assist her, or simply to see what was happening. A nurse from the rear of the plane made himself available. It appeared the situation stabilised and things returned back to normal, everyone went back to their seats apart from a cabin crew member and a gentleman that was sitting next to her."
But after another 20 minutes, the woman suddenly slumped down in her seat and passengers tried to rush to her aid. But Paul said that the crew were able to keep the situation under control.
He said: "It became quite disorganised and unruly at times, many of the now very worried Italian speaking passengers trying to offer their own medical advice. The cabin crew had to be quite vocal and strong towards some, they repeated 'please take your seats, the seatbelt sign is on'.
"The cabin crew made an announcement asking for the nurse or any medical professionals to make themselves available, the male nurse returned as well as a female nurse. They decided to move the lady into a seat closer to the bathroom and to give her more room and a faster exit off the plane.
"The flight crew tried to keep things as normal as possible. The seatbelt sign stayed on for the duration of the flight from that point on, but, shockingly, many passengers couldn’t obey this. It was like a kindergarten, the flight crew had to ask passengers to turn back and go back to their seats many times.
"During the flight we weren’t sure if the plane was continuing towards Dublin or being diverted, until the captain announced: 'We’re making our approach into Dublin, as we have a medical emergency on board an ambulance will meet us on the stand, so please remain in your seats until the ambulance crew deal with the sick passenger'."
Ambulance personnel and airport police were quick to board the plane, and the woman was transported to hospital. And despite the chaos, Paul was full of praise for the crew and how they handled everything.
He concluded: "Top marks to the Ryanair cabin crew, a few of which couldn’t have been more than 25. It was a tense situation, which they controlled extremely well."
A Ryanair spokeswoman told Dublin Live: “Crew requested medical assistance ahead of landing on this Palermo to Dublin flight (26 Jan) as a passenger became unwell mid-flight. The aircraft landed normally and the passenger was met by medical personnel on arrival.”
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