A Ryanair Boeing 737 was evacuated onto the tarmac at Palma Airport on the Spanish Island of Mallorca in the early hours of Saturday morning after a false fire alarm activated in the cockpit.
Eighteen passengers were injured during the evacuation, including six who had to be rushed to local hospitals.
The incident occurred as Ryanair flight RK3446 to Manchester, England, was being pushed back from the stand in preparation for takeoff, with passengers evacuated via emergency slides, as well as onto the wings.
Ground staff filmed the chaotic evacuation as passengers attempted to jump from the wings onto the tarmac below. It does not appear that the wings were configured for an emergency evacuation.
“A flight from Palma to Manchester discontinued take-off due to a false fire warning light indication,” the airline said in a statement.
“Passengers were disembarked using the inflatable slides and returned to the terminal. While disembarking, a small number of passengers encountered very minor injuries (ankle sprains, etc.) and crew requested immediate medical assistance.”
The statement added: “To minimise disruption to passengers, we quickly arranged a replacement aircraft to operate this flight, which departed Palma at 07:05 this morning. We sincerely apologise to affected passengers for any inconvenience caused.”
The Boeing 737 has two sets of overwing exits which are sometimes referred to as ‘self help’ exits because they are opened by passengers without any invovement from cabin crew.
The 737 does not have inflatable slides installed into the wings so if passengers evacuated via these self-help exits, they must jump onto the ground below.
In order to configure the wings for an emergency evacuation, the pilots are expected to lower the trailing edge flap on the wings, which brings them much closer to the ground.
This then allows passengers to jump a far shorter distance to the ground.
Unlike the Boeing 737, the rival Airbus A320 features inflatable slides built into its wings.
A similar incident occurred on an American Airlines Boeing 737 in Denver, Colorado, on March 13 when passengers found themselves trapped on the wings of the aircraft as smoke poured out of one of the engines.
Passengers were eventually evacuated from the wings by quick-thinking ground staff who propped up maintenance steps on the side of the wings.
