Woman struggles to breathe as chaos reigns when plane is stranded on tarmac for seven hours

A young woman has detailed how a traumatic airline experience ended in a visit to the doctor, after passengers were stuck on a grounded plane in Melbourne for almost seven hours without air-conditioning or any substantial food.

Ivy Teng was travelling from Melbourne to Singapore on Scoot airlines flight TR19 last Sunday. She boarded at 12.40pm and decided to take a nap once boarding after passengers were told there was a technical issue with the door.

But when waking up two hours later, Ms Teng said they were informed they would be put on another flight moments before being asked to sit down again to prepare for Australian immigration clearance.

“When that was done, however, only the business class, the elderly ones, and also family with children were asked to disembark, leaving the rest on the aircraft,” Ms Teng told Yahoo7 News.

“By this time, it had been over four hours on the plane and the pilot gave an order to distribute water bottles and snacks like chips and chocolate bars.

“But not everyone got them – including myself.”

Ms Teng said on the plane became “chaotic” after the air-conditioning was turned off and some people were “yelling and shouting at the crew”.

“Some demanded to get off the plane, some changed seats and sat in the business class section (as that area was empty) and protested to confront the pilots,” she said.

“It was extremely stressful.”

She said police even boarded the flight to calm passengers down and staff said the flight would be cancelled if people did not return to their seats.

After another hour, Ms Teng said passengers were told the flight was now cancelled.

After two hours at the service desk, she was one of the lucky ones to get a seat on a Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore, due to leave about 1am.

Other passengers had to come back for a flight the following day.

After checking in, Ms Teng said she started to feel unwell as a result of sitting in the heat and inquired about going to the medical centre but it was closed until the following day.

Ms Teng boarded the Singapore Airlines flight and on landing at Changi Airport, she went straight to the doctor.

“I experienced more than usual heart palpitations, cold sweat, and started to lose my vision,” she said.

“My breathing shortened and I had numbness all over my body, I felt as if no air could get through my nose or mouth. Also with an empty stomach, it made me very uncomfortable.”

Medical documents show Ms Teng had a near vasovagal syncope, which occurs when your body overreacts to certain triggers, causing fainting as the heart rate and blood pressure drop suddenly.

“After boarding my connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur shortly after, I underwent the same symptoms again,” she said.

Scoot Airlines admits to ‘confusion’ as passengers transferred

In a response to Yahoo7 News, a Scoot airlines spokesperson confirmed the flight was grounded at Melbourne Airport “for rectification works”.

“To ensure they could resume their journey as soon as possible, Scoot arranged to re-accommodate as many affected customers as possible on Singapore Airlines flights,” the statement read.

“Border authorities were only able to handle a limited number of passengers, and so passengers had to be kept on board.

“Priority for disembarkation was given to passengers who were transferred onto earlier Singapore Airlines flights. Water and snacks were distributed to passengers on board.

“Concurrently, the technical issue was being repaired. After the first group of passengers were transferred to Singapore Airlines, the aircraft was declared serviceable, and we attempted to resume the flight as soon as possible for the remaining passengers.

“Unfortunately, preparations for flight dispatch took longer than expected, and we then exceeded crew flight time limitations, so the flight was grounded again.

“Following the second grounding, we were able to get a second group of passengers transferred onto another Singapore Airlines flight just past midnight, but some passengers could only be re-accommodated on flights the next day; for this group we offered meal vouchers and hotel accommodation.

“The parallel activities of the effort to recover the flight, and the transfer of passengers to alternative flights, may have caused confusion to our customers.

“We will review how our communications with our customers could have been better. Scoot sincerely apologises for the inconvenience and disruption caused to our customers’ travel plans.”