Passengers relieved after airplane ordeal

“I was praying that God would take me and not my child,” said American dentist Mathew Brennan, after an electrical fire broke out in an US Airways Boeing 767 jet which made an emergency landing at Shannon Airport yesterday.

Flight 306 with 190 passengers and 10 crew aboard was on route from Philadelphia to Dublin when a major electrical fire broke out in the front cargo hold of the aircraft. At the time the flight was 400 miles west of Shannon Airport.

Fire brigade units from Shannon and Ennis and ambulances from Limerick and Ennis were on the runway after a full-scale emergency was mounted for the stricken jet. Fortunately, the aircraft touched down safely at 10.59am.