French freak-out: plane makes accidental emergency announcement

[Heracles 417]

French freak-out: plane makes accidental emergency announcement

September 14, 2009 - 11:30AM

French passengers on an Aer Lingus Dublin-Paris flight were thrown into panic when a faulty announcement told them the plane was about to make an emergency landing, the airline said.

An English-language announcement 20 minutes after leaving Dublin said the plane was heading into turbulence, asking passengers to return to their seats - but the pre-recorded French version said they were about to ditch.

One passenger told the Irish Examiner newspaper that a French man who was dozing next to him suddenly woke up and looked very startled.

"He translated what had been said to me. The message, he said, was that we should prepare for an emergency landing, note where the emergency exits were and await instructions from the captain.

"As there was turbulence as well I got quite alarmed. The woman behind me was crying.

"All the French freaked out," he said.

It took a few minutes before the cabin crew realised the error.

"They then went back on the PA system and apologised for playing the wrong announcement in French," the passenger said.

The airline spokeswoman said the error was the result of the public address system malfunctioning.

"We subsequently clarified this and apologised to our passengers. It was a very unusual occurrence," she said.

There were about 70 passengers on the A320 Airbus flight on August 4.

AFP

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-new...90914-fmti.html

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Edited September 14, 2009 by Booyah!

[Ban Hammer 13,407]

[caybee 21]

Wow. I always figured they'd give the "ditch" announcement live. I guess the non-French speakers wondered why the French folks were freaking over turbulence.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Did they start sewin white flags?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Did they start sewin white flags?

If you were on the plane you would have needed one to wipe your aѕs since you would have been scared to death too.