Ryanair accident near Lugano

A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-DAH performing flight FR-1703 from Milan Orio al Serio (Italy) to East Midlands,EN (UK) with 134 passengers, was climbing through FL310 about 30nm north of Lugano (Switzerland), when the passenger oxygen masks deployed and the crew initiated an emergency descent reaching 10,000 feet about 5 minutes later (average sinkrate 4200 fpm). The crew turned north, descended to 9000 feet north of the Alps and diverted to Frankfurt Hahn (Germany) for a safe landing. Three people were taken to a hospital.

A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration EI-EBX reached East Midlands with a delay of 4:20 hours.

The airline confirmed the aircraft diverted to Frankfurt Hahn due to a technical fault and later reported three people were taken to a hospital for ear pain but were released shortly after.

A number of passengers reported hearing a bang and feeling a rush of cold air, the crew subsequently was heared on PA to declare "Mayday, emergency descent".


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