Outrage As Banky W,Other Passengers Amost Suffocate In New York Bound Arik Air

 

The management of Arik Air has described passengers who protested the 55-minute suffocation onboard its airplane on March 31, as “unruly.”

The passengers,  including R&B artiste Banky W, who were travelling from Lagos to New York aboard the airline, had experienced discomfort occasioned by failure of the plane’s air-conditioning system to work, prior to departure.

In a 10-minute video, which has circulated widely on social media, children and adults were seen pulling off their clothes as the heat in the plane became unbearable.

As the heat bit harder, the passengers demanded that the crew members allow them to exit the plane to prevent them from suffocating to death.

A voice from the plane’s public address system was also heard appealing to the passengers to exercise more patience. However, rather than getting the frayed nerves calmed, the passengers were angered the more.

Believing that  none of the crew members appeared to be sympathetic to their cause, a handful of them  attempted to force their way into the cockpit, to get the pilot and  his assistant aware of their situation.

“I am dying here. I can’t stay here anymore; they should open the exits. I can’t see anybody to talk to,” a male traveller who was seen in the video putting on only a singlet, yelled.

Also, an elderly man wearing a pair of glasses while expressing concerns over the development stated, “This is trouble. Do they want to kill us here? I don’t understand this kind of a thing.”

While the said suffocation lasted, some of the statements the apprehensive passengers chorused included, ‘This is a sign of trouble’; ‘Why are we being held hostage here?; ‘This is hostage taking’; ‘It is not good for our health’; ‘This is wickedness.’”

At a point a female passenger putting on a black and white stripped blouse while regretting her decision to fly the airline, alleged that she experienced a similar situation last December.

“I was here last December and this same thing happened. Let them just get us out of here,” she alleged.

But assuring members of the public that it had initiated measures to prevent a repeat of the incident, the airline wrote on its Facebook page on Tuesday that it was unfortunate that the protesting passengers were aggressive.

“Arik Air wishes to thank all guests who endured this inconvenience patiently, despite both the trying circumstance and the unfortunate exhibition of aggression, to both people and property, by a minority of unruly passengers onboard the aircraft,” the airline stated in its apology