Juan Ameen
Air passenger recounts lightning strike
Just a few minutes after a Ryanair flight took off from Pisa airport, Ivan Distefano heard a loud bang and a saw bright flash as the plane was struck by lightning.
The flight, scheduled to land in Malta at about 9 p.m. on Thursday, was delayed for three hours after the captain made an emergency landing in Ciampino, in Rome.
Mr Distefano, from Naxxar, was on the flight with his wife Sandra and 10-year-old son Gianluca.
There were a few screams when lightning struck but everyone remained calm, Mr Distefano said: "I was not scared."
The hostesses continued serving drinks while the captain made an announcement to reassure passengers there was no damage and the plane would land at Ciampino for security reasons.
The landing was uneventful and the passengers were asked to remain on board during an inspection. Minutes later, however, the captain announced that engineers had found a fault in the plane and that the passengers would be transferred to another flight.
"I was very satisfied with the way everything was handled. There was no sense of panic, shouting or hysteria," said Mr Distefano.
Coincidentally, the low-cost airline this week launched a million seats for €5 each to mark the third anniversary of its Malta-Pisa route, which has so far carried over 125,000 passengers.
The seats are only available for Ryanair's European routes - specifically between November 19 and January 31 - and the fares include taxes and charges.
These dates exclude school holidays, public holidays and major sporting events. The offer closes on Monday at midnight.
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Lawrence Fenech
Nov 8th 2009, 11:05
I was on that flight and have the following questions:
1) Captain declared whilst taxying that we will expedite departure in order to avoid the approaching thunderstorm. Why did he not wait for the storm to pass?
2) Why did the flight to Rome Ciampino take almost an hour? The two airports are surely not more than 300km away. The scheduled flight time to Malta was 1 hour 20 minutes
3) Captain stated that the diversion was for security reasons. What breach of security was there? Surely if anything it was safety reasons. With my experience in aviation I have my doubts on the real reason. Was it an operational reason so that the aircraft does not get held up in Malta while in Rome there was a spare aircraft?
4) Why were the passengers kept in the plane for at least half an hour before one single bus transffered them to the other aircrfat in two trips?
5) Passengers were not offered a refreshement during this wait not even under payment.
I consider the article a free advert for Ryanair the auirline which does not respect its customers.