A plane operated by easyJet, the low-cost British airline, was met by emergency services after the aircraft was landed because of a technical issue.
The incident was captured in a viral TikTok clip with over 1.9 million views, shared five days ago by Danielle (@daniellewats0n). The footage shows passengers on a plane wearing oxygen masks deployed from their seats. A caption shared with the post simply reads: “thanks for the trauma @easyJet x.”
A spokesperson for easyJet told Newsweek: “easyJet can confirm that flight EJU7259 from Palma [in Spain] to Edinburgh [in Scotland] on 8 August 2023, was met by emergency services on arrival in Edinburgh as a precaution only due to a technical issue. The captain performed a routine landing in line with standard operating procedures and passengers disembarked normally.”
The airline added that the plane requested an expedited landing due to a technical issue on the aircraft. The oxygen masks were deployed only as a precautionary measure, in line with safety procedures.
The easyJet spokesperson said: “The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority, and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all manufacturers’ guidelines.”
While the incident in the latest clip resulted in a safe landing, the survival rate of most air accidents was reported to be “considerably high” in a February 2022 study in Safety Science.
The study added the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that airplane accidents involving U.S. air carriers were found to have a 95.7 percent survival rate from 1983 to 1999. The survival rate dropped to 55 percent “in the most severe accidents (those involving fire, serious injury, and aircraft damage).”
The study also cited a later statistic from 2018, which reported a survival rate of 86.3 percent for commercial aircraft accidents from 1990 through 2014.
“These statistics show that the survival rate of most air accidents is considerably high, but the fatality rate caused by technically survivable accidents is also very high. Therefore, keeping the efforts to saving lives in technically survivable accidents is one of the most significant problems in modern aviation,” the study said.
The latest video sparked fear among some TikTok users, while others were less bothered and praised the airline for the plane’s safe landing.