JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, February 15, 2025

Brace! Brace! Brace!: Passengers recall trauma during emergency landing

by

Elizabeth Gonzales & Otto Carrington
17 days ago
20250129
CAL passenger Tynielle Jack, of Tobago

CAL passenger Tynielle Jack, of Tobago

A rou­tine flight turned in­to a night­mare for pas­sen­gers on a Caribbean Air­lines flight Mon­day night. What should have been a sim­ple, 21-minute trip from To­ba­go to Trinidad be­came a har­row­ing or­deal, as one of the plane’s en­gines failed mid-air.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert con­firmed the en­gine ran out of fu­el and an in­ves­ti­ga­tion is un­der­way. For To­bag­on­ian Tynielle Jack, it was a sto­ry of ter­ror and re­lief. The am­a­teur footage she shared with Guardian Me­dia showed the tense mo­ments in­side the cab­in as the plane pre­pared to make an emer­gency land­ing.

She said when the pi­lot made the an­nounce­ment, it seemed that by the re­ac­tion of oth­er pas­sen­gers many be­lieved it was the usu­al land­ing an­nounce­ment. But as the min­utes passed, re­al­i­ty set in, prompt­ing her to take out her phone to record what she dread­ed may have been her last.

Things quick­ly turned se­ri­ous when the cab­in crew start­ed shout­ing, “Brace! Brace! Brace! re­peat­ed­ly.

“I was like, ‘Why is this plane so low?’ But every­thing felt steady, so I didn’t sus­pect any­thing. Then I heard them shout­ing, and I’m try­ing to fig­ure out, ‘Is some­thing wrong?’ When I looked out­side and saw the fire ser­vice rush­ing to­ward the plane, I thought, ‘Is the plane on fire?”

Jack ad­mit­ted that fear took over. She said the un­cer­tain­ty and the re­peat­ed com­mand to brace for im­pact made her feel the worst was in­evitable.

“A lot of things went through my mind, and I start­ed to ask my­self, ‘Is this re­al­ly my last?’ Then I start­ed to pray. I don’t think oth­ers un­der­stood the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion be­cause even af­ter hear­ing the an­nounce­ment that the cab­in crew should pre­pare for an emer­gency land­ing and to brace, I looked around and re­alised no one is re­act­ing in any way.”

Jack praised the cap­tain and crew for stay­ing com­posed and en­sur­ing a smooth land­ing.

“I was look­ing out­side to see if any­thing was hap­pen­ing, and I couldn’t see any­thing be­cause the flight was a very smooth flight. We had no tur­bu­lence or any­thing; the pi­lot did very well to keep every­one calm, and I think it was be­cause of how calm he was and the crew was that no one pan­icked through­out the or­deal. When we land­ed, some peo­ple were still sleep­ing; some peo­ple didn’t even know what was go­ing on.

“Oth­ers had to be awak­ened. There were mixed emo­tions, and many peo­ple on board gave cred­it to the pi­lot and how he man­aged and han­dled the sit­u­a­tion. It was just one of those sit­u­a­tions you re­al­ly hope you don’t ever have to ex­pe­ri­ence. I was just thank­ful we land­ed safe­ly.”

She be­lieves this in­ci­dent is a “wake-up call” for the coun­try to con­sid­er an al­ter­na­tive air­line for the air­bridge.

“Some­times you hear com­plaints from pi­lots about the planes and the need for new fleets. Maybe it’s time for the mo­nop­oly to end and for us to have al­ter­na­tive flights.”

Jack said she was still trau­ma­tised and plans to avoid the air­bridge for now, opt­ing to use the fer­ry back to To­ba­go.

Mean­while, pas­sen­ger Ajay R Sinanan, who shared his or­deal via so­cial me­dia, post­ed, “My fam­i­ly and I were on Caribbean Air­lines flight BW1541 on 27/01/2025, and we ex­pe­ri­enced an emer­gency land­ing that I will nev­er for­get. The fear, the un­cer­tain­ty, and the chaos were over­whelm­ing, most­ly be­cause my tod­dler was a pas­sen­ger too, and al­though he was seat­ed next to his mom, I was help­less to him in those mo­ments as he wasn’t next to me.

“In hind­sight, what stood out the most was the in­cred­i­ble pro­fes­sion­al­ism of the cab­in crew. They did what they were trained to do, fo­cused on the emer­gency pro­ce­dures, and re­peat­ed­ly shout­ed, ‘Brace!’ and that was it. No oth­er in­struc­tions, no hand­hold­ing, “Sinanan said.

“In those mo­ments, it be­came painful­ly clear that once you’re in the air and some­thing goes wrong, no one is com­ing to res­cue you un­til it is safe to do so.”

He added, “Sad­ly, not all pas­sen­gers un­der­stood this. In­stead of brac­ing, many pulled out their phones to record the sit­u­a­tion, and oth­ers were scream­ing out ran­dom ad­vice (true Trin­bag­on­ian style). The chaos around me was pal­pa­ble, but the re­al­i­ty was know­ing what to do in that mo­ment was the on­ly thing that mat­tered. The crew did their part by stay­ing calm and fo­cused on the safe­ty pro­ce­dures, but it was up to each of us to fol­low through.”

To­ba­go Cham­ber Chair­man Mar­tin George is call­ing on Caribbean Air­lines to thor­ough­ly in­ves­ti­gate the in­ci­dent and en­hance safe­ty pro­to­cols. How­ev­er, he al­so com­mend­ed CAL for its im­prove­ments to the air­bridge but said there was a need to main­tain high stan­dards.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored