A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight due to arrive in Johannesburg on Thursday was forced to divert due to a fire on board.
PHOTO: Siegfried Modola/Getty Images
- A KLM flight to Johannesburg was forced to divert back to Amsterdam airport in the Netherlands.
- There was a fire on board.
- The passengers and crew were uninjured.
A Royal Dutch Airlines Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij NV (KLM) flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg was forced to divert back to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Thursday.
This was due to an oven in the aircraft galley catching fire.
KLM flight KL591 left the airport at 11:30 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Johannesburg at 10:10 p.m. Thursday.
No casualties were reported.
“The cabin crew quickly extinguished the fire,” the airline said in a statement.
Tiana Cline, who was traveling on business, said the incident happened about two and a half hours after the flight.
She told News24 that she was wearing headphones and working when she noticed a crowd of around 30 people in front of her.
She said:
I took off my headphones and realized that people were crying. The women hugged each other and seemed very nervous.
According to Cline, the passengers saw smoke at the rear of the plane, prompting the cabin crew to move the passengers downtown.
There was a strange smell in the air, and one woman said she inhaled “toxic fumes.”
“A male flight attendant returned from [kitchen] and it looked like it had gone down a chimney,” he said.
Cline said the crew was helpful and tried to stay calm. They gave the passengers wet towels to help with the toxic smoke, but they still looked “exhausted.”
The plane did not have Wi-Fi, so they were unable to message their families about what was going on, he said.
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According to Cline, fuel was released from the plane to make it lighter.
The plane landed with a “bump” on its return in the afternoon, to applause, he said.
However, Cline said many passengers were still distraught, with some people in shock and a woman seen sobbing in her seat.
All passengers were booked on a new flight with a new cabin crew. The new flight landed in Johannesburg early Friday morning.
The incident could have been much worse, Cline said, but she was glad to be safe and home.
He thanked the cabin crew for their clear communication and assistance.
In an email to passengers on the flight, which News24 has seen, KLM apologized to the passengers and said they were entitled to compensation.
“We can imagine that you may have been concerned about this situation, but your safety was never at stake. You can be sure that our engineering and maintenance division will thoroughly review all systems to establish the exact cause and resolve it before this aircraft is delivered. “. implemented again,” the email said.
