Hazel Friedman
Where there’s smoke there isn’t always fire. But there could possibly be a free air ticket.
This is what panic-stricken passengers discovered this week after their flight was twice aborted as a result of a fire alert on board.
Passengers at Johannesburg International airport had boarded their Virgin Atlantic aircraft en route to London on Sunday night and the crew were preparing for take-off when acrid, foul-smelling smoke wafting from the air-conditioning units began filling the cabin.
“It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life,” recalls Ian MacNeil, a passenger on board and a regular Virgin flyer. “There was a pong and a haze of smoke. I thought Virgin was taking me to meet my maker.”
The crew acted swiftly and evacuated the near-hysterical passengers. A three-hour delay ensued while engineers checked the aircraft, after which the passengers were given the green light to embark.
But within an hour of take-off, a dark blanket of smoke again filtered through the cabin.
According to many passengers interviewed after the ordeal, there was a lot of praying directed at the Virgin Mary and other saints and goddesses, some cursing on the part of several inebriated passengers and much sniffing.
Finally, the pilot announced the plane would return to Johannesburg. The only problem was it had to offload a tank of fuel, which meant terrified passengers were treated to a “round trip”, repeatedly, of the skies above Gauteng.
When the bleary-eyed passengers returned to the airport the next day to resume their flight plans, they each received a letter explaining the cause of the fire scare. To avoid the future prospect of being dubbed Virgin Scarelines, the company also offered each passenger a complimentary round-trip economy ticket to any destination on any Virgin carrier.
And the cause of the crisis? A leaking oil seal from the auxiliary power unit which supplies electricity to the aircraft on the ground. This unit also provides power to run the air conditioning and lights. When the oil leaked from the valve, it created an oil spillage which was burnt off, resulting in smoke entering the air- conditioning unit of the cabin.
The second airborne alarm resulted from a residue of oil which, when heated, once again infiltrated the aircraft interior. Definitely unpleasant, but not dangerous enough to make dreams of future flights go up in smoke.