Plane's emergency exit door "opens" mid-air after "massive explosion"

A British tourist claims an emergency exit blew open on a super jumbo at 27,000ft.

David Reid told the Daily Mail that he and his son Lewis were terrified a bomb had gone off after they heard a 'massive explosion' two hours into their flight on a new Emirates Airbus A380 on Monday.

He said freezing air blasted in and the cabin pressure plunged after the door in business class came an inch and a half ajar.

Mr Reid claims passengers wept in terror and that a petrified stewardess ran down the aisle screaming 'the door's going to go'.

But instead of making an emergency landing, Mr Reid said the crew decided to stuff blankets and pillows in the hole and continue the flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong, despite the droning noise and sub-zero temperatures.

Mr Reid had reportedly planned the 'trip of a lifetime' with his son after spending months battling leukemia.

'We were about two hours in when suddenly there was a huge blast.

'It was a real shock, so loud that I thought a bomb might have gone off. Air was gushing into the cabin like a gale.

'The stewardess jumped up and stared at the door. Her face was drained white.

'She ran up the aisle, grabbed the intercom and started screaming, "The door's going to go, the door's going to go!" Then she hid under her chair.

'Other passengers were crying and saying "We're going to go down, we're going to go down."

'It was complete panic. The emergency door was ajar and leaving a gaping hole. You could see straight out into the atmosphere, 27,000ft up.'

According to news.com.au, Mr Reid, who has a private pilot's licence, said that after several moments of confusion the cabin crew used duct tape to stick blankets and pillows together in 'the most crude method you could imagine to try and plug the hole' of a state-of-the-art plane.

He added: 'The conditions were terrible for the rest of the flight. The door continued to make a horrendously loud droning sound which made it impossible to speak to each other. Worst of all, it was absolutely freezing.

'It was an extremely very nerve-wracking experience for everybody.'

Mr Reid claims he suffered a chest infection following the incident and the pair had to cut short their £4,500 trip.

His 18-year-old son reported the incident to the Department of Transport's Air Accidents Investigation Branch, who has passed the case on to air investigators at the United Arab Emirates General Authority for Civil Aviation.

An Emirates spokesman told the Daily Mail: 'We can confirm there was a whistling noise emanating from one of the doors on the A380 upper deck on flight EK384 between Bangkok and Hong Kong on Monday, February 11. At no point was the safety of the flight in jeopardy.'

An Airbus spokesman said: 'It is not possible for a cabin door to open on an A380 or on any aircraft whilst in flight, as doors open inwards and have locking mechanisms.'

Related articles

Terror as passenger tries to open door of easyJet plane at 35,000ft

Pilot presses wrong button causing plane to plunge over Pacific

Woman's terror at seeing engine burst into flames mid-air on BA flight