An investigation is under way after two passengers were injured on board an Aer Arann flight from Dublin to Donegal yesterday.
The ATR 42-seater aircraft was approaching the Dunlewey area of west Donegal, about five minutes from Donegal Airport, when it encountered turbulence at 2,000 ft, according to a spokesman for the Department of Public Enterprise.
An official from the Department's air accident investigation unit travelled to Donegal to interview passengers and inspect the plane. The aircraft was not damaged and was released back into service yesterday. A report will be filed on the incident.
The pilot reported that the aeroplane fell about fifty feet and this caused passengers to be thrown about in their seats. One of them received a head injury. A doctor was on standby when the flight arrived at Donegal Airport a few minutes later to treat the injured.
A spokeswoman at Donegal Airport blamed the incident on bad weather conditions but passengers say that visibility was good at the time. The ATR 50 did not, however, make the return flight to Dublin.
One passenger from the Gweedore area last night said that he thought they were going to die. He said the impact of the incident resulted in the plastic cup in his hand being squashed to pieces. He said that they were in the area of Errigal mountain at the time and that all passengers felt they were too close to the mountain. He said that visibility was good at the time.
"I thought the plane was going to crash and that we all had it. The visibility was quite good at the time so we don't exactly know what happened.
"We were very close to the top of Errigal Mountain, in fact so close that we felt if we put our hands out the window we'd have been able to lift a stone from the top of it.
"This was the general feeling of any passengers I spoke to. It was the worse fright I ever got," he said.
"If we hadn't the belts fastened we'd have been thrown all around the plane. Some people received cuts from hitting the windows and overhead lights," he said.
An Aer Arann spokesman in Dublin last night did not comment on the incident, while airport officials in Donegal were referring all enquires to Aer Arann.
A second plane arrived from Dublin to take passengers from Donegal to the city some two hours later than scheduled.