Turbulence alert gets lost in translation

SACRE bleu! The French are known for their emotional outbursts, but turbulence on board an Aer Lingus flight over the Atlantic is a different matter.

Around 20 minutes after taking off from Dublin, an announcement in English said passengers should return to their seats and fasten their seatbelts because it was about to get bumpy. It was soon followed by another announcement, this time in French.

Irish passengers presumed it was also about turbulence. Except somebody pressed the wrong pre-recorded message – warning the plane was about to make an emergency landing.

The aircraft was over the sea at the time and some passengers believed the plane was about to be ditched in it.

One passenger told the Irish Examiner that a French man who was dozing next to him suddenly woke up and looked very startled.

“He translated what had been said to me. The message, he said, was that we should prepare for an emergency landing, note where the emergency exits were and await instructions from the captain. As there was turbulence as well I got quite alarmed.

“The woman behind me was crying. All the French freaked out,” he added.

It took a few minutes before the cabin crew realised the error.

“They then went back on the PA system and apologised for playing the wrong announcement in French,” he said.

Around 70 people were onboard the A320 Airbus which took off last Friday morning on its way to Charles de Gaulle airport.

The majority of those onboard were French.

An Aer Lingus spokeswoman confirmed that a pre-recorded message in French about the emergency landing had been accidentally pressed instead of the turbulence warning.

“We subsequently clarified this and apologised to our passengers. It is a very unusual occurrence.”