8th December 2016

Passenger plane springs a leak on flight to Jersey

When a de Havilland Dash 8 took off from Manchester to Jersey with four crew and 23 passengers aboard, nobody expected anything other than a routine flight. They were wrong. As it climbed to 25,000 feet, the aircraft depressurised and oxygen masks were deployed. The crew started a steep descent to 10,000 feet and put out a Mayday call. At that altitude, the flight continued to Jersey and the passengers disembarked uninjured. However, an investigation revealed that despite safely completing the flight, the cockpit crew had been affected by the lack of oxygen caused by the depressurisation.

As reported by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, “both crew describe feeling slightly lightheaded. In the commander’s own analysis, after the event, he realised that he was having difficulty completing the Technical Log, which was a relatively simple task and therefore considered that he was already slightly hypoxic when the pressurisation warning occurred.”