A 16-year-old traveller has claimed passengers on a Ryanair flight in Malta passed out and vomited after being trapped in extreme heat without working air conditioning. Eva Gregory said she felt nauseous and suffered a panic attack as the incident unfolded on flight FR7268 from Malta to Birmingham, where she was travelling with her mother, Angela, and brother, Samuel.
Delays and heat on the tarmac
The flight was scheduled to depart at 5.40am on Monday, August 10, but Eva claimed the aircraft did not take off until around 7.30am. She alleged passengers first waited about 30 minutes inside a bus with no air conditioning, then were transferred to a second bus with limited cooling for another half hour. Travellers were then made to stand on the sun-baked airstrip for a further 20 minutes before boarding.
Once on board, conditions did not improve. Eva said there was still no working air conditioning when they entered the cabin. "When we boarded, it was immediately obvious the air conditioning was not on," she said. "It was like walking into extreme heat. We got on the plane but were sitting and waiting in the heat with no air conditioning at all for over an hour."
Passengers' reactions and medical incidents
Eva, from Spondon, Derby, said passengers became agitated and frustrated, with some taking off their tops due to the heat. She claimed she saw two people lose consciousness and others being sick. "Two people passed out, although I'm not sure how many were throwing up," she said. "I was experiencing the feeling of needing to throw up, but as I have a phobia of being sick, it gave me a panic attack."
She added that elderly passengers seemed extremely distressed and could have experienced worse medical problems. She also claimed staff did not offer free bottles of water to anyone, even those experiencing medical emergencies.
Crew response and aftermath
Despite the issues, Eva defended the cabin crew, saying they had tried to prevent passengers boarding until the problem was fixed. "The Ryanair cabin crew absolutely did their best," she said. "They were telling them not to let us onboard until the air conditioning was fixed. The other workers did not listen to the cabin crew and then the crew were the ones dealing with passengers' anger when it was not their fault."
The air conditioning allegedly began working gradually after the aircraft became airborne. Eva said the heat and witnessing medical emergencies made her feel uneasy and extremely angry. "I want the story to be shared and for Ryanair to fix its mistakes and stop valuing money over the passengers," she said.
A Ryanair spokesman told the Daily Mail: "This flight from Malta to Birmingham (10 Aug) was delayed prior to departure due to a minor technical issue with the aircraft and subsequently became delayed after a passenger." Following an inspection by engineers, the aircraft was cleared to operate, and the flight departed Malta at 7pm local time.
