Scoot’s Response To The Oxygen Mask Incident on Taipei Flight: ‘We’re Sorry & Pilots Will Be Retrained’

Remember watching movies where oxygen masks drop during a flight and pretty much everyone dies? Remember the frenzy?

Well, this is exactly what happened on a Scoot flight from Singapore to Taipei. The only difference, thankfully, is that the plane managed to land safely in the end.

Freaked Out

So the oxygen masks were deployed. The pilot announces that there were problems with the aircraft which led to a dip in cabin pressure.

And the plane descended for rapidly.

Needless to say, for people who have never experienced the need to put on oxygen masks and have only seen them in movies, many freaked out.

Case in point is a child whose high-pitched screaming can be heard from Ms Harpreet Kaur Bedi’s video of the incident. Or an infant vomiting during the incident.

Everyone was in a panic on the inside, and the burning smell reported by some passengers didn’t exactly help the situation.

And as per the movies, some found time to convey their love for their family members and friends one last time.

Ms Kaur did the same, having filmed another private video for her children. I guess this is the one part that movies didn’t exaggerate: it is only on the brink of disaster that our deepest gratitude is brought forth.

Now, back to the question on the cause of the drop in cabin pressure.

What really happened?

Scoot’s Response

Scoot has since come forward to apologise for the incident.

In addition, they announced that the pilots on that fateful flight will be sent for retraining. Further tests will be carried out on the plane itself as well.

Better to be safe than sorry, right?

So what triggered the deployment of oxygen masks in the first place?

Like any other pilot would, the pilots of Flight TR996 were just doing what they were trained to do when descending to land. Only, it somehow led to a drop in cabin pressure. Now, what on earth is cabin pressure? It’s just two words; it doesn’t sound that bad.

Except the consequences are lethal. Depending on how high the plane is from the ground, passengers may die from insufficient oxygen (hypoxia, if you want to sound smart). Hence the oxygen masks that the pilots decided to deploy.

Now, this begs the question — what, or who caused the dip in pressure? Was it the plane itself, or was it the pilots who were trying to land?

Scoot said that the pilots have made some “procedural decisions” that led to a drop in cabin pressure.

The oxygen masks were deployed as a “just in case” even though the flight could’ve continued smoothly.

Now, what triggered that “procedural decisions”?

It’s unknown yet, and so some found fault in their statement and attacked the company instead.

Netizens Unhappy With Scoot’s Response

Ouch, that was harsh. But realistically speaking, no airline company is immune to accidents; budget or not.

Regardless of the outcome, others have decided that budget, after all, is not the way to fly — no matter how cheap it is.

For another group of people, Scoot seems to have reinforced their impression that budget airlines are generally unreliable.

It doesn’t help Scoot’s case that they’ve experienced several technical problems with their planes over the past few months, in March and December.

At the end of the day, minor or major accidents involving planes will still be unstoppable, at least in the near future.

So instead of deciding to live as a hermit and banning travel from our lives, let’s go all out to show our appreciation for our loved ones!

(Editor: Trina…erm, that was quite sudden, especially with this…overactive happy rabbit?)