By Callum Paton.
Tripoli, 17 June 2014:
A Tunisair flight carrying a number of sick and injured passengers twice aborted . . .[restrict]landing at Tripoli Airport last night as ferocious ghibli winds struck the capital.
Tripoli International Airport was closed for some hours yesterday as flights were rerouted due to the extreme winds. The last plane, a Malta flight, landed at 8:30 pm before the airport was shut to arrivals.
Tunisair flight TU405 from Tunis was redirected to Djerba while flying over Tripoli after the two fraught attempts at a landing. In extreme turbulence the plane circled off the coast of Tripoli for 45 minutes before returning to Tunisia.
The cabin became tense as passengers began praying over the muffled screams of young children. The sounds of the struggling aircraft mingled with the sobs of worried mothers and many feared the worst. With the cabin lights dimmed for landing the scene was illuminated only by the the lights of the emergency exits.
Some felt there had been insufficient information given by flight staff. During the aborted landings a number of individuals implored the captain and crew for more details with some leaving their seats in the adverse conditions to make their requests.
At Djerba a crew of Tunisair cleaning technicians were brought on to clean the plane after a number of passengers had been sick. Around two thirds of those on the flight elected not to return to Tripoli by air, preferring to remain on the ground and take overland transport back to the capital.
There was heated debate on the tarmac at Djerba as the Tunisair attendants informed leaving passengers that they would not receive compensation or the price of their bus or taxi fare to Tripoli. At one point a young man demanded all passengers disembark the plane saying their safety could not be guaranteed, a few more left with him.
Many of those aboard the flight were returning from medical operations received either in Tunisia or further afield. The route between Tunis and Tripoli is frequently used by those visiting hospitals abroad. Most who were still sick or recovering decided not to remain on the plane.
One passenger who left, Marwa Salem, a member for the Libyan National Council for Human Rights and Civil Liberties (NCHRCL), told the Libya Herald that the treatment of the passengers both by Tunisair and the ground staff in Tunisia was “the worst I have ever seen”.
“I saw so many people in completely miserable conditions; it was absolutely horrible,” she said. Salem added a number of those who exited the plane had to go immediately to hospital or to nearby hotels to recover.
She said she had been with one woman who had been receiving care for a neck wound which remained open at the time of the ordeal, another patient, a small girl who was returning from Canada in a leg brace, was also on the plane.
Salem said the Manager of Djerba Airport had told the passengers he could offer them no assistance and no ambulances were called despite the deteriorating conditions of many there. “They knew the situation and they simply did not care,” she said.
Salem remained with the final 25 passengers who were the last to make it out of Djerba Airport. Some had no money, she said, and they reached Tripoli by minibus at 12:00 today after setting off from Djerba at 4:00 a.m.
To make matters even worse, if that were possible, when the passengers who had travelled overland reached Tripoli Airport they found items had been stolen from their bags. Salem said a complaint had been lodged with the police over the thefts and investigations were ongoing.
Salem said the NCHRCL would be looking into the treatment of the passengers and that she and many of those aboard had not ruled out taking legal action. She said the names and contact details of over one hundred of those who had left the flight had been collected.
Eventually TU405 did land at Tripoli and the final descent was without incident. Passengers left the plane just before midnight nearly four hours after its scheduled arrival.
For many of the passengers, either on the plane, or making their way home, the ordeal had begun much earlier in the day. Some had had their flight delayed from Tunis for up to six hours because of a strike by baggage handlers at the airport. Again Salem said treatment was poor. “Many of the sick were forced to queue like refugees when food was eventually given out,” she said. “They were shouted at too,” she added.
“This would not have happened on an outgoing flight to Paris,” Salem concluded. “It was an emergency situation, they should have taken care of us and they should have treated us like humans.”
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