Minor BA16 drama as oxygen masks drop

[33kft]

Passengers’ fear as oxygen masks drop on British Airways flight

British Airways passengers were left terrified after a pilot blunder led to the oxygen masks dropping mid-flight.

Flight BA16 was travelling from Singapore to London when, two hours into the flight, problems began to occur.

Mitchell Webb, 24, was travelling on the British Airways flight with his friend Luke Gregory.

“The media screens and lights turned off, followed by the masks falling down and an automated announcement telling us to put on our masks for oxygen,” he told The Sun.

“About 2-3 minutes after this, the cabin crew stated to ignore the message, it was due to a technical error and they were in the process of a step by step reboot of systems.

“One cabin crew member made a particularly striking reassurance of ‘we’ll make it’ — great to hear — and even after all this panic, we had no apology or even an explanation from the captain to reassure us, even before we came in to land.

“One of the flight attendants admitted that some of the masks didn’t even administer properly from the overhead bit.”

Passengers’ fear as oxygen masks drop on British Airways flight

 

[RooFlyer]

“One cabin crew member made a particularly striking reassurance of ‘we’ll make it’ — great to hear — and even after all this panic, we had no apology or even an explanation from the captain to reassure us, even before we came in to land.

Sounds like another 'nothing to see here' attitude from up front.

Looks like the masks were left dangling for the rest of the flight, so I assume the system wouldbe operable if there was a genuine need for them later in the flight.

If there was a need, presumably the P.a. world be : "hey, we really mean it this time "

 

[Himeno]

There's no indication of when this happened.
If the masks were deployed, many of them would have been pulled and thus useless should they be needed later in the flight.

Wouldn't they have to have landed somewhere as they wouldn't be able to continue on to LHR without a working mask system?

 

[RooFlyer]

If the masks were deployed, many of them would have been pulled and thus useless should they be needed later in the flight.

Wouldn't they have to have landed somewhere as they wouldn't be able to continue on to LHR without a working mask system?

Thats a better observation than mine.

 

[jb747]

Stored gas systems, as fitted in the 747 and A380, can be reset, and the flow stopped. Chemical generation systems, once pulled, are done, and quite a lot of maintenance is required before the aircraft can fit back into service again. They are not required if you limit the max altitude to FL250.