Earlier this week, terrified passengers – including babies and children – were left stuck on a plane with no air conditioning, as the cabin temperature soared to 52 degrees.
The Mavi Gok Airlines Antalya-Muenster flight, a Boeing 737-800, was due to fly from Turkey to Germany on June 6, but after an hour sat on the tarmac, holidaygoers were begging to get off.
According to a couple on the flight, a Turkish-speaking doctor plead with the cabin crew, saying: ‘If we take off now, the children will not survive.’
The couple in question Dominik Janssen, from Leer in Lower Saxony, and his wife Nancy, told German media: ‘When we got on, we immediately noticed how hot it was in the plane.’
His wife Nancy began fanning a five-month-old baby, desperate to keep the tot cool.
Dominik said: ‘The children were getting louder and louder, everyone’s water was running out. The situation was very precarious.
(Picture: Newsflash)
‘A father and a woman were scared to death for their children. The panic spread to everyone.’
Reportedly, the cabin crew were not handing out water to the passengers in the sweltering cabin, and the plane began to taxi to the runway for the roughly four hour flight.
Thankfully, the pilot eventually returned the plane to the terminal and passengers were allowed to disembark.
But just how dangerous is being stuck in 52 degree heat inside a cabin for a prolonged period of time?
Dr Donald Grant, GP and senior clinical advisor at The Independent Pharmacy, tells Metro.co.uk: ‘Any temperature above 40-45 degrees Celsius is considered a danger to life.
‘This is due to the fact the body is no longer able to regulate its temperature effectively. As a result, the risk of heatstroke and organ failure increases exponentially – with the risk of fatality increasing too.’
Dr Grant points out that people cannot survive long in these circumstances.
He explains: ‘In 52 degree heat without water the body quickly dehydrates, which can escalate into more severe conditions such as heat exhaustion, heatstroke and kidney damage.
‘Without the means for rehydrating, symptoms such as dizziness, a loss of consciousness and a rapid pulse could be experienced as the body fights to maintain a stable temperature.’
In these ‘horrific conditions’, according to Dr Grant, the body is ‘quickly overwhelmed’.
‘It enters a panicked state as it struggles to maintain a healthy body temperature, this can lead to critical health issues or fatality within hours without the ability to rehydrate.’
For children, all this will happen at a faster rate than adults because they’re less able to regulate their body temperature.
If your body becomes severely dehydrated in these conditions, it could leave you with long-term health implications like cardiovascular issues, with the increased likelihood of arrhythmias and heart attacks, according to the doctor.
Your brain could also be injured from a lack of oxygen, eventually leading to motor dysfunction and memory loss.
‘Without sufficient air conditioning systems, the flight going ahead would have caused a massive risk of fatality on board the plane,’ Dr Grant adds.
‘Flying in such extreme heat could risk a wealth of health impacts to both the crew and passengers on board, and the lack of access to emergency services while in the air would have increased the chances of death as emergency procedures would have been left to the crew.
‘Overall, flying in these conditions would have been extremely irresponsible and would have risked the lives of every passenger on board’.
In a statement, the airline said: ‘The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew is our highest priority.’
Both the airline and Boeing have been contacted for further comment.
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