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Thanks to our smartphones and social media, it's easier (and faster) than ever to share travel mishaps in real time with the entire world. I'm talking about situations like massive delays that create huge crowds at airports, irate passengers being removed from planes, rude seat mates who refuse to give you their personal space. But what happened on this Qatar Airways flight goes far beyond a "mishap" and straight into emergency territory.
Earlier this week, passengers on a plane with the airline found themselves without air conditioning while they were stuck on the tarmac for hours, and that led to temperatures rising to sweltering conditions — even causing one passenger to go unconscious. Just the footage that has emerged online is horrifying enough; it must have been so much worse to experience this incident firsthand.
On Tuesday, June 11, the Daily Mail 's TikTok account shared footage that was taken on board the plane that was delayed in Athens, Greece . According to the caption on the video, temperatures were as high as 34 degrees celsius — or 93 degrees Fahrenheit — on the plane.
Here, we can see passengers absolutely drenched with sweat, trying to fan themselves and each other to stay cool. At one point, it seems like some people started stripping down, and it seems like a true nightmare situation just from what we can see here.
They were forced to endure these conditions for more than three hours while the plane was stopped on the tarmac. What went wrong, and why were these people forced to stay on the plane in these conditions?!
The Incident on the Qatar Airways Plane
According to Business Insider, the plane, a Boeing 777, was stopped on the tarmac on Monday due to a technical issue. The air conditioning malfunctioned during a heat wave in Greece that has led to schools being closed and other services being shut down, like garbage collection, in light of the hot temperatures. So of course, it was really not the time to be stuck in a small, enclosed space with no air conditioning.
The outlet also pointed out that one passenger shared his experience on Instagram with even more footage from the incident. He wrote, "Passengers were left stranded on the plane for 3 and a half hours with doors closed and no aircon. Passengers were literally dehydrating and passing out on the plane. They were finally allowed off of the plane and are now sitting in a queue with no communication from the company as to what the situation is."
An airline spokesperson also shared a statement with Business Insider that said, "Qatar Airways sincerely apologizes for the delay to passengers traveling on flight QR204 from Athens (ATH) to Doha (DOH) on Monday 10 June 2024, which was due to a technical issue."
They added that passengers have been updated with their "compensation entitlements in line with the applicable regulations."
Here's hoping the airline finds some way to make this right — if that's even possible.
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