Ryanair plane loses pressure, 16 in French hospital

Sixteen people were taken to hospital when a Ryanair flight to Spain from Britain made an unscheduled landing at Limoges airport in France after a loss of cabin pressure, the airline said.

Flight FR9336, which left Bristol airport in southwest England for Barcelona late yesterday with 168 passengers on board, "experienced an inflight depressurisation incident which caused the oxygen masks on board to deploy," the airline said.

"As a safety precaution the captain descended and diverted the aircraft to Limoges airport at approximately 23.30 local French time," it added in a statement.

It said the 16 people taken to hospital had been complaining of earache.

Passenger Pen Hadow told Sky Television the incident "was traumatic for many involved."

"Suddenly there was a roar of wind, a rush of cold air, the oxygen masks dropped, you didn't know what was going on," he said.