It was surely a 'flight to hell' experience for multiple passengers who boarded a Gol Airlines flight to travel across Brazil as the flight cabin was filled with dense smoke which left people onboard choking and in dire need of oxygen masks. Rio De Janeiro GoI flight video has been spreading like wildfire on social media and netizens are terrified as multiple passengers were seen coughing when the flight was filled with smoke mid-air. As a result, the flight that took off from the Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro had to go back and make an emergency landing.
As per Brazilian media reports, a number of passengers boarded the flight from the Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro. However, it soon turned into a horrible experience when a dense smoke filled the cabin and left them with very little oxygen in the middle of the air. In the viral video, people were seen covering their noses and mouths with their clothing as the white smoke alarmingly continued to rise. Despite the chaos unfolding in the cabin on Saturday, passengers claimed that oxygen masks were not deployed.
Reports further suggest that the flight had only been in the air for a short time before the horrific incident unfolded en route to Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo. Pilots were forced to perform a dramatic U-turn to return to Brazil's capital as panicking passengers feared for their lives. A person named Julian von Dueffel filmed the video and he informed the local media, "We took off, I saw Barra Beach, and suddenly this smoke started...I looked back, and I saw that the plane was full of smoke; it was spreading...Panic ensued, with many people shouting, asking for the masks to drop."
After the emergency landing, Gol reportedly said that the 102 passengers and crew members disembarked safely via the stairs after the Boeing 737 landed without incident. Furthermore, GoI also issued a statement over the cause of the smoke. The airline claimed that the smoke came from hydraulic fluid vapours that entered the cabin through the ventilation system.
Watch Video
Cockpit declared emergency followed by return back to Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont Airport (SDU),after GOL Boeing 737-7BX aircraft (PR-VBW) developed smoke in the cabin at around 5000ft during take-off from Runway 20L on 02 Sept. Aircraft was operating flight G31003 to Sao Paulo. pic.twitter.com/00DYLGaync
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) September 2, 2023
How did netizens react to the video?
A user wrote, "Cockpit O2 should be déployed immediatly. Crew did not followed emergency procedures."
Another user wrote, "Years ago I was on an L-1011 flight out of ATL to MCO and it happened. Fuel dump and sharp trun back to ATL. Turned out it was electrical."