Ryanair Passenger Faces 3 Surgeries After Jumping From Wing in Terrifying Emergency Evacuation

A passenger who was on a Ryanair Boeing 737 that evacuated onto the tarmac of Palma Airport on the Spanish island of Mallorca in the early hours of Saturday morning has been told that she’ll need three surgeries to repair the horrendous injuries she sustained when she jumped from wing of the plane.

Danielle Kelly, 56, suffered a broken right heel, fractured left wrist, and a broken elbow after she jumped up to 18 feet onto the hard tarmac below as passengers fled the plane in fear for their lives.

Kelly was one of several dozen passengers who evacuated the Boeing 737-800 via two sets of overwing emergency exits. After hearing a “loud bang,” Danielle feared there was a terrorist onboard the packed plane and desperately tried to escape as cabin crew ran down the aisles screaming at passengers to evacuate.

It turns out, however, that the pilots of Ryanair Flight RK3446 to Manchester, England, had received a false fire alert in the cockpit, which prompted the emergency evacuation, a spokesperson for the airline explained.

Cabin crew deployed emergency evacuation slides on two exits at the front and rear of the aircraft, but passengers in the middle of the plane used the overwing exits.

These are sometimes referred to as ‘self-help’ exits as they are activated by passengers without any involvement from the cabin crew.

In order to safely evacuate a Boeing 737 via these self-help exits, the wings have to be correctly configured, thereby lowering the trailing edge of the wings much closer to the ground, minimizing the risk to passengers as they clamber to the ground.

Video taken by ground staff at the airport as the evacuation got underway, however, appears to show the wings configured in a way that there was still a substantial drop to the ground below.

“It was utter chaos, passengers were screaming, ‘open the doors, open the doors’. It was terrifying, I thought there was a terrorist on board, so I grabbed my daughter and got out,” Danielle told the Daily Mail.

“There was no announcement from the pilot or any of the other cabin crew,” Danielle continued. “The door nearest to us opened, and everyone ran onto the wing and started jumping off.”

Danielle added: “I’m 56 years old, I didn’t want to jump, but I feared for my life. It felt like a life-or-death situation.”

“I knew as soon as I landed that I was seriously injured, I couldn’t walk, but the ground staff were shouting for everyone to move away from the aircraft in case it exploded.”

Danielle was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors have told her that she’ll have to undergo three surgeries to fix the damage.

Danielle wasn’t, however, the only passenger seriously injured in the evacuation. Francine Elkinson, 57, sustained a break in her right foot and had to endure a three-hour operation on Saturday to have pins and plates inserted in her foot.

A third passenger who jumped from the wing told the Daily Mail that she had suffered a double fracture to her pelvis. She may also have broken a vertebra in her lower back.

“A member of the cabin crew was screaming on the tannoy for everyone to get off the plane,” the woman recounted. “They were saying, ‘leave your bags, the plane could explode’, which obviously just made everyone panic.”

“I’m usually a rational thinking person. No one wants to throw themselves off the wing of a plane unless the alternative is worse – everyone was led to believe it was an emergency and they had to get out immediately.”

A total of 18 people were evacuated during the evacuation, six of whom had to be taken to two local hospitals. In an official statement, Ryanair said the passengers had sustained minor injuries.

In March, passengers onboard an American Airlines Boeing 737 at Denver International Airport found themselves trapped on the wing of the aircraft after using the self-help exits to evacuate as smoke poured out of one of the engines shortly after landing.

In that incident, the wings were not configured for an emergency evacuation, but passengers remained on the wings until quick-thinking ground staff brought a set of maintenance steps to help them to the ground safely.

Unlike the Boeing 737, the rival single-aisle Airbus A320 series of aircraft has inflatable slides built into the wings, allowing passengers to evacuate onto the tarmac.

The overwing exits on A320 aircraft are permanently armed, meaning that if a passenger opens the self-help exit, the slide will automatically inflate.

In a statement, following Saturday morning’s incident, Ryanair said: “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.”

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.”