VS27 16/04/2012 - Emergency Landing at LGW.

I saw some tweets saying "never gonna fly virgin again". Frankly the professional way the pilots & crew dealt with it makes me feel safer travelling Virgin, but I do worry that sales might get hit.

Agreed, it's some way reassuring that everyone did exactly what they're supposed to do. I'm a nervous flyer and a few years ago did the Flying Without Fear course which was fantastic and means incidents like this can be put into perspective. FWF is also a good marketing tool as I always choose to fly with Virgin lol

Hi horburyflyer.
How do you know a LHR 744 will be doing the BGI route from the end of april.
Only reason i ask is im flying VS29 on may 26th and wandering what the chances of me getting on it.

Thanks. Jason

I saw some tweets saying "never gonna fly virgin again". Frankly the professional way the pilots & crew dealt with it makes me feel safer travelling Virgin, but I do worry that sales might get hit.

Having been a gold member and flown many miles with VA I know they have their faults, but to the tweeters, come on really! Virgin provided you with a almost new state of the art plane, which unfortunately developed a fault. The captain then returned you safely to the airport, where you were immediately evacuated again safely. This was done in a text book manner without regard to the enormous cost to the airline. On this occasion the should be nothing but praise for the whole team and I am not sure if the crew are aircraft specific, but I hope they are on my next flight on 1 st July to MBJ because I will be sat in 8a and I would love to shake your hands. Well done all you

And that's exactly what we did we turned ST round in record time ready to slot into the schedule. The company decided not to fly the 27. Makes you wonder how many people would haven't have wanted to get back on another plane after what they'd been through.

There's a few of the guys I work with who were on the plane didn't want to fly today on the rescheduled flight later today.

Embarrassingly the quotes "it was wobbly" and "screaming like a banshee" are also from people that work for my company

Some of the comments posted on Twitter are unreal especially the passengers of other airlines who want compensation for being stuck on the ground for an extra couple of hours.

Here's an example, I have removed the posters name;

How will Virgin compensate passengers on other airlines? My daughter got 2 days delayed. An e-mail address pls.

-Steve

Looks like G-VMEG (Mystic Maiden) is flying to MCO today from LHR - so we have some interesting shuffling of the fleet as you would expect in these exceptional times.

Jon

Sadly it seems the great British public will take the following away from yesterday's events..

1. VS planes are unsafe
2. VS crew panicked and screamed and pushed passengers down the slides

The fact is that the plane is safely on the ground with 15 passengers suffering injuries, mainly due to the slides. The fact that the entire aircraft was empty within 90 seconds, and the fact that the plane even made it to the ground is testament to the training and skills of the entire flight deck and crew on-board.

I'd love to educate these people complaining about the crew and saying they panicked - they actually did their job down to a T.

StillRedHot - nail on the head.

VS could take a lesson from AA after the Hudson ditching in how to turn opinion around...

C'mon VS - get some PR out there...

Whilst the reporting has been shocking, some of the comments on here haven't been much better either.

Lozza - really? Care to elaborate?

Virgin have done all they can to ensure this incident ended with minimum of fuss and injury, and have succeeded. As has been said before, its now up to the PR side to shine and educate the public that regreatable as these incidents are, VA did all they could possibly have done for the passengers on the plane and in the aftermath.

Nope, not really. It was just one or two comments that seemingly have absolutely nothing to do with what's being discussed...e.g the fact that an AA 757 squawked 7700 and returned to EGCC...great. This is a) not uncommon and b) totally irrelevant.

Just to add that both flight deck and cabin crew did a great job, as did ATC.

Some of the comments posted on Twitter are unreal especially the passengers of other airlines who want compensation for being stuck on the ground for an extra couple of hours.

Here's an example, I have removed the posters name;

How will Virgin compensate passengers on other airlines? My daughter got 2 days delayed. An e-mail address pls.

-Steve

you would think beyond belief but sadly in these days where a lot of peoples first thought is 'how much can I milk this for' I guess not...how would this perosn feel if their daughter was on the plane ? Grateful she was in the hands of profesional crew who got her back safely or upset she hadnt got served her meal first ????

From The Sun comments box:

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And (this is one is really good)

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I mean, with comments like these, what hope have VS got of putting a positive spin on this? I blame the wholly irresponsible reporting for encouraging this rubbish.

i see todays Mail classic, in a piece about a delta jet having to land due to a bomb scare (someone had left a mobile phone charging in a bathroom) is 'after a blaze on board '

so now its a full on fire........... wonder if everyone sat round it singing kumbayah !!!

Wasn't the Hudson ditching US Airways, not AA?

Correct.

Which just goes to prove my point.

[Neil]

Correct.

Which just goes to prove my point.

It is not uncommon on internet forum for threads to go off topic slightly, and I don't see what harm it has done in this specific thread.

Without exception, all the posts on here have been in support of VS, and praising the crew for their decisions and subsequent actions. Compare that to the main stream media, where the reports have been sensationalised for maximum impact.

I really don't see how you think the comments in this thread have been 'not much better' than those reported in the media (getting AA mixed up on the Hudson river incident is hardly a major issue).

Neil

No, but it IS inaccurate. Similar to a lot of the reporting of yesterdays event.

And if you cared to read, I was also praising the crew too. I have no issue with that.

Anyway, no offence was meant.

For those that are looking for a VS response regarding the crew doing what they had to do see the link below, I am in full support of the crew, a blinder of a job and a job well done!

It's a shame that people seem to use it as negativity against the airline.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-17741176

I completely agree.

Tom Aldridge, and people like him, have a lot to answer for. I bet it doesn't stop him from flying today though, does it?

Whilst the reporting has been shocking, some of the comments on here haven't been much better either.

At the risk of being shot down, I agree with you to some extent.

Without doubt, the flight deck crew performed exceptionally well by executing a textbook emergency landing, and overall the cabin crew are to be credited for getting 300-odd passengers off within a couple of minutes.

In any incident like this there will be some uninformed, sensationalist reporting. That's regrettable, but inevitable. But the attitude towards passengers who've spoken to the media seems to be somewhat disdainful - "we know what we're talking about, you don't, so shut up".

Tom Alridge, who I heard on BBC News talking about a "panicking" cabin crew member, seemed very articulate. To me, he didn't sound like he was sensationalising - he just gave an honest account, from a normal passenger's perspective, of what he saw. He was there, yet some on here have rubbished what he said even though they weren't there.

Yes, the cabin crew are trained to be assertive in an emergency but maybe Mr Alridge was right and one was a bit over-zealous? Witnesses spoke about people falling on top of each other at the bottom of the slides, and we know several people needed hospital treatment for fractures, so maybe some passengers were sent down - with every good intention - before the slide was clear.

Or maybe they weren't, and the crew all did a brilliant job (as most of them undoubtedly did). The point is, unless we were there, we don't know for sure so perhaps it's unfair to accuse "uninformed" passengers of speculation when really we're just as guilty sometimes?

Tom Aldridge, and people like him, have a lot to answer for.

On that I'm afraid I disagree.

He was just a normal passenger, talking - very articulately - about what he saw.

What he saw may have been normal procedure, or it may not. We don't know because we weren't there, but he was and what he saw clearly worried him. Overall, he was quite complimentary about the landing and the evacuation, but his one comment about a particular flight attendant - which for all we know was justified - seems to have made him public enemy number one.

No he's not an expert - but if we only ever heard from experts talking about what should have happened rather than real people talking about what did happen, hardly anything would ever get reported.

[Neil]

Tom Aldridge, and people like him, have a lot to answer for.

On that I'm afraid I disagree.

He was just a normal passenger, talking - very articulately - about what he saw.

What he saw may have been normal procedure, or it may not - he's not an expert - but if we only ever heard from experts talking about what should have happened, not real people talking about what did happen, hardly anything would ever get reported.

I guess it then comes down to whether we want things reported, or things reported accurately.

Maybe it would have been better for him to find out how the crew are trained/instructed to deal with emergency evacuations before speaking to the media about their handling of the situation.

It is slightly unfair for someone to suggest a crew member was acting inappropriately if Virgin (either by training or through instruction from the FSM) told them to act in this manner. The attention would then be on Virgin or the FAA procedures, rather than a crew member doing their job.

Of course it is all speculation, but because that is the case, quite often then best action is to say nothing until all the facts are known rather than say something that could later turn out to be untrue. In my opinion, talking to the media so soon after an event like this is not the best idea as it usually only creates more uncertainty and harm than good.

It is slightly unfair for someone to suggest a crew member was acting inappropriately if Virgin (either by training or through instruction from the FSM) told them to act in this manner

I wonder if he'd be complaining if the aircraft landed and was engulfed by a catastrophic fire? No, of course not.

Surely, if the cabin crew have been told to evacuate then that is what they do, regardless of how severe one may perceive the situation to be?

I agree that he is probably calling the situation as he saw it, so we shouldn't criticise him for that. But he is commenting from an un-informed point of view (as most of us are). Its the media who are to blame for printing this as "fact".