Ryanair plane loses pressure

A Ryanair flight to Spain was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Limoges airport in France when it lost cabin pressure, the airline said yesterday.

Flight FR9336, which left Bristol airport for Barcelona late on Monday with 168 passengers on board, "experienced an in-flight depressurisation incident which caused the oxygen masks on board to deploy," the airline said.

"As a safety precaution, the captain descended and diverted the aircraft to Limoges airport at approximately 23.30 local French time," it added in a statement.

Sixteen passengers were taken to hospital complaining of earache but they were released yesterday before continuing their journey to Girona by coach.

Explorer Pen Hadow, who was aboard, told Sky Television the incident "was traumatic for many involved".

"Suddenly there was a roar of wind, a rush of cold air, the oxygen masks dropped, you didn't know what was going on," he said.

Mr Hadow, who in 2003 became the first person to reach the North Pole unaided from Canada, complained that the oxygen masks did not seem to work. "No oxygen was delivered through the oxygen masks and I was surprised there seemed to be no communication between the pilot and the flight attendants because they didn't seem to know what to say and do," Mr Hadow told the BBC. "There was absolutely no communication from the flight crew and that added to people's extreme fear."