Aircraft emergency result of in-flight alarms

A Virgin Atlantic incident earlier this week, in which 15 passengers were treated in hospital after an emergency landing evacuation, was due to “a number of alarms being triggered in-flight”, the airline said.

Passengers spoke of people landing on top of each other after the Florida-bound Virgin plane was evacuated at Gatwick having had to turn back to the West Sussex airport on Monday.

Virgin said yesterday the crew of the Airbus A330 had taken positive action in line with procedures by returning to Gatwick and evacuating the plane which has now been certified for a return to service. There were 304 passengers on board.

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A Virgin Atlantic spokesman said an investigation identified that a number of alarms were triggered in-flight.

Passenger Kirsty Bonwick said: “A lot of people were hurt, scraping their arms and legs and elbows and bleeding. You think you’re going to stop at the end of the chute and then get up, but you go flying off it and you just went across the concrete.”