Well, this is a news that will not help if you are already afraid of flying. The story went that Jet Airways Flight 697’s journey from Mumbai to Jaipur, India, was forced to return to Mumbai 45 minutes after take off when the crew (read: the pilots) failed to pressurized the cabin. A potentially fatal error, but fortunately, there was no death involved. However, it did left some passengers bleeding from nose and ears, and everyone onboard grasping for air.

A non-pressurized cabin is not a big deal when the aircraft is close to the ground, but it is a nightmare if it gets to its cruising altitude of say, 30,000 feet. The higher the aircraft goes up in the air, the pressure gets lower and naturally, so does the air. Humans are not designed to survive in low pressure and hence, bad things, such as asphyxiation will occur and also, bleeding from nose and ears like some of the passengers onboard Flight 697 have experienced.

The harrowing ordeal was captured on video by one passenger, Darshak Hathi. Hathi also claimed that non-pressurized cabin wasn’t the only issue; he said that when the oxygen masks were deployed, oxygen supply wasn’t present. However, according to a report, a Jet spokesperson dismissed Hathi’s claim. At end of the day, this blunder resulted in five passengers being sent to a hospital for check-up.

A case like such is a grim reminder that whenever we fly, our lives are on the hands of the person who commandeers the aircraft – not just the hardware. According to Boeing, nearly 80 percent of accidents were caused by pilot error. Well, I guess this incident involving Jet Airways Flight 697 just add to the numbers and it is really unfortunate.

Image: File photo of Jet Airways from 2015/AP.

Source: Gizmodo.

Published by Mike

Avid tech enthusiast, gadget lover, marketing critic and most importantly, love to reason and talk.