Britsh Airways passengers were left terrified when a technical error caused the oxygen masks to be deployed on a flight from Singapore to London over the weekend.
"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," passenger Mitchell Webb told Sun Online Travel.
"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," he added. "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"
Webb said one of the flight attendants even admitted that some of the masks didn't deploy correctly. However, a British Airways spokesperson told Sun Online Travel that the cabin crew communicated with passengers that the masks had dropped accidentally.
British Airways issued an apology to passengers via email, explaining the situation and directing customers to its website for additional information.
"We would like to apologize for the inadvertent oxygen mask deployment on your flight from Singapore and any distress or concern this may have caused. We would like to reassure you that safety is always our main priority and this was not compromised on this occasion," the airline said.
"We trust that our flight and cabin crew dealt with this situation in a professional manner you would expect from us. If you would like to speak to us about this, please visit ba.com/contactus. We hope you had a pleasant flight."
One passenger described the experience as a "flight from hell" on Twitter, saying the accidental oxygen mask deployment was "followed by many other unacceptable events."
The incident comes less than one month after a British Airways flight landed in the wrong destination due to incorrect paperwork.
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