Hey folks,
My good friend was aboard this flight returning home to Kerry for xmas.
I asked him a few questions about the experience and below are some of his responses via email....
"I slept for the entire flight as had a late one the night before and damn Desperados (beer & tequila) took alot out of me! Woke up when pilot said cabin crew 10 mins to landing. Bit of a bumpy landing but no more unusual than any time I have landed in Kerry as runway is small. we were turning into the airport and I could smell smoke so looked out to the wing, then looked up to cabin and it was filling with smoke. Plane then shut down i.e. lights went off and engine cut out. Pilot came on intercom to say everyone remain seated. To then come on 10 seconds later to say emergency evacuation everybody get out of the plane. Grabbed my bag and went towards exit to see disturbed looking crew and slid down the inflatable thingy. (a bit like last scene of Die Hard!!) fireman at the end of slide said to just run and get away from the plane so I just went through terminal as didnt fancy going into snow filled field! and then had a pint to be joined by a few people who needed a brandy to calm their nerves.
Some were shouting and grown men were crying afterwards. When we slid down the firemen were telling everyone to run away from the plane and some people were running into fields!!
The two(Cabin crew) I dealt with were very shaken but they got everyone off efficiently. There was an elderly woman on a wheelchair that took quite a while to get off though.
All baggage was bought to the front of the building for people to collect within an hour. I had to wait 30 mins for a barman to show up to serve me a pint!"