A Beverley woman has told HU17.net about her terrifying experience after the plane she was travelling on was set on fire deliberately multiple times.
Sarah Jeffery was flying back from a two week trip to Australia where she had been to visit her partner who is working there.
Her flight, the EY461 to Abu Dhabi, left Melbourne about 11pm on Monday only to be forced to land after smoke was seen coming from the toilets.
Sarah said;
“I know there was at least three fires on the flight, I never saw the first one as we had just eaten and most of the passengers including me were sleeping.”
“The first I knew of it was when the crew made an announcement that the smoking was not permitted on-board the plane.”
“Around 20 minutes later I saw flames and smoke coming out of the toilet cubicle when the crew tackled the second fire.”
The pilot of the flight made an emergency stop at Jakarta in Indonesia where the plane underwent emergency checks to try and find out the reason for the fires.
Passengers from the plane were made to disembark and were put through a series of checks when it became apparent to authorities that the fires were being started deliberately.
With no one being identified and due to immigration bureaucracy Sarah and the other passengers had no choice but to re-board the EY461 flight as resumed its journey to Dubai.
Just two hours into the flight, thousands of feet above the Indian Ocean a third fire was started and it was then that the severity of the situation started to hit home with Sarah, she said;
“When the third fire broke out things were starting to get a bit scary and that is when I thought things could end badly.”
‘‘I was very frightened that we had two more hours before reaching Abu Dhabi, and I actually sent messages to my boyfriend and son telling them how much I loved them, in the hope that if anything happened they would receive them.’’
By now the plane was on what Sarah described as lockdown, passengers were kept strapped into their seat while the cabin crew monitored the activity, Sarah added;
“During this time we were not served food or drinks, for me this was not a problem but for others it must have been very difficult. The cabin crew were brilliant, they kept people calm throughout, one of them said to me they had to deal with a fire within 90 seconds to prevent it from spreading.”
On arrival in Dubai the passengers were again subjected to further heightened security checks, Sarah said;
“They took us off two rows at a time and were given a very intensive search, I believe they kept twelve people though they have since been released.”
“I was lucky, I was only delayed by five hours, some of the passengers had to stay over in Dubai.”
After making back home safely to Beverley, Sarah said;
“I am so pleased to be back home and on dry land!”
