Gopal Kedia, a Thane-based chartered accountant, on Thursday shared a photograph showing his four-year-old son wearing a vest with an oxygen mask covering his face.
“Due to negligence of cabin crew of #jetairways. My 4 year son suffered bleeding from nose,” he tweeted around 10am.
Father and son were on a Jaipur-bound Jet Airways flight that had to return to Mumbai within minutes of taking off after about 30 passengers suffered nasal and ear bleeding because the pilots had apparently forgotten to operate the switch that regulates cabin air pressure.
Many of the passengers later took to social media, sharing photographs and videos to vent their anger at the airline. Darshak Hathi, international director with a socio-religious foundation, uploaded a video taken on board the flight.
“Panic situation due to technical fault in Jet Airways 9W0697 going from Mumbai to Jaipur,” tweeted Hathi.
The 45-second video he shot and shared shows several passengers wearing their oxygen masks while some are struggling to put them on. No member of the cabin crew can be seen anywhere near any of the passengers.
Travelling on the same flight was Satish Nair, a Vancouver-based NRI, who later threatened to sue Jet Airways if the inquiry revealed the cause was “crew mistake”.
“Worst apathy I have been through…horrifying and worst incident in my life…. passengers on Jet flight bleed after crew forgets to maintain cabin pressure,” tweeted Nair. He said he had suffered a nosebleed.
“It was the worst nightmare you can think of… I was almost blacked out.. if this is crew mistake as being claimed, then I am going to sue them for involuntary manslaughter,” Nair said in reply to a tweeter.
A tweeter from Mumbai, Aankeetaa, said her family had faced a similar incident a few months ago while flying from Delhi to Mumbai. “Crazy how irresponsible they are towards their passengers,” she tweeted.
One Twitter user, however, blamed the airline management rather than the crew. “Probably salary issues of crew could have had an effect on their duties…. Instead of disciplinary action, investigation must probe whether crew have been receiving salaries properly,” he tweeted.
