Passengers on a Qatar Airways flight had to endure being stuck for hours in stifling cabin heat as the aircraft sat on the tarmac without air conditioning.
On June 10, 2024, flight QR 204 was scheduled to depart Athens International Airport (ATH) in the early afternoon, bound for Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha.
However, due to a technical issue, the B777 aircraft had to be grounded in temperatures that came close to 40 degrees Celsius, amid a heatwave that enveloped Greece throughout the week.
To make matters worse, the aircraft’s air conditioning system was not working, and the flight’s captain reportedly refused to let passengers deboard while the issue was being fixed.
Passengers onboard took to social media to share their ordeal, with some filming footage of the scene inside the cabin and uploading it to various platforms.
One of the videos uploaded to social media platform Instagram shows passengers looking extremely uncomfortable. Many are seen fanning themselves and others seem to have passed out from the heat. Some passengers could not bear the heat and resorted to taking off their shirts.
Another video clip taken by the same passenger, sports massage therapist Garth Collins,, focuses on a man in the cabin looking very distressed. The video uploader identified the man as Damian Collins, a martial artist and personal trainer.
The post caption said:
“3.5 hours with the doors closed, no air cooling, and zero sustenance. People were passing out, and panic ensued. Damian is a fit, conditioned athlete, imagine the stress and danger for any normal individual.
Currently the passengers are queueing at the check in counters to find out when they will be flown out of Athens, and what will be done about their connecting flights in Doha.
Passengers were eventually given a cup of water and small soft drink, completely insufficient to rehydrate an individual after the enforced sauna on the plane.”
Following strong protests, passengers were finally allowed to disembark the aircraft after 3.5 hours.
They were then provided with overnight accommodation and boarded the flight the following day, at 10:30 local time to Doha.
In a statement sent to various media outlets, an airline spokesperson said: “Qatar Airways sincerely apologizes for the delay to passengers traveling on flight QR204 from Athens (ATH) to Doha (DOH) on Monday, 10 June 2024, which was due to a technical issue.”