The evacuation of the passengers was inevitable on the flight departing from the Budapest Airport to Tel Aviv on 23 March, report Airportal.hu and Mno.hu. Panic broke out among the passengers on the plane when thick smog filled the aircraft cabin.
It does not happen every day that passengers of a departing plane have to be evacuated through the evacuation slides. However, this is exactly what happened in Budapest on Thursday when the passengers on the plane departing from Budapest to Tel Aviv had to be rescued. According to Mno, the plane was pulled to the runway when, all of a sudden, smoke started to fill the aircraft cabin coming from the vehicle doing this manoeuvre. Due to the unexpected incident, panic broke out among the passengers who had to leave the plane when the flight attendants ordered the evacuation through the inflatable slides.
As the paper reports, a 39-year-old woman was seriously injured on her head when she fell out of the slide and she was immediately transported to the hospital. She is now in critical condition.
The plane involved in the incident belongs to the Smart Wings Airline which replaced the plane of the Israir Airline, partner of the El Al Israel Airlines Ltd, after it had previously broken down. The Hungarian managing director of the El Al, János Váradi, reported to Mno that the El Al has nothing to do with the incident since the plane in question was an Israir 6H716.
Attila Farkas, the chief executive officer of the Travel Service operating the Smart Wings flights, confirmed the incident. He said that the cause of the problem was that the engine of the vehicle pulling the plane was turned on right before they started to do the manoeuvre. It was cold, and given that it is an old, diesel-powered vehicle, the immense smog produced could easily fill the cabins. Consequently, it is not the plane itself that broke down, but this vehicle. Attila Farkas stated that the life of the passengers was never in danger.
You can check the video about the authorities arriving on the scene.
Featured image: MTI