‘Calm, efficient’ crew praised for handling cabin pressure scare

Passengers on this morning’s Qantas flight from Perth to Geraldton were startled when the plane rapidly descended and oxygen masks dropped down from above.

Daniel Delgado was sitting in the front row as the drama unfolded.

“The lady next to me didn’t agree with flying and I was just comforting her when the pilot said ‘descend, descend, descend’,” Mr Delgado said.

“As we were descending all I could hear in the front cock pit was a hissing sound like Darth Vader.

“I just warned her: ‘I have had this happen before, I am pretty sure the pilot is taking oxygen at the moment and I am pretty sure our oxygen masks are going to deploy’.”

Mr Delgado said he was impressed with the crew and his fellow passenger.

“The crew did a fantastic job, they didn’t hesitate and we got down to 10,000 feet,” he said.

“Then it got on the ground with no difficulties and everything was as per normal.

“The pilot got out and asked if there were any questions, everybody was quite impressed and thanked the captain.”

A Qantas spokesman said the pilots saw a cabin pressure warning light just before their scheduled descent into Geraldton.

“Protocol is to descend to a lower altitude and masks deploy,” he said.

“The aircraft descended to 9000ft over a six minute period then the pilot came out of cockpit to reassure passengers.

“It landed without incident — it was not an emergency landing.”