Melih Ozcubukcu (35) from Oss was the one passenger who got off a Ryanair plane on Saturday after drones were spotted above Eindhoven Airport. “I recognized myself in the reconstruction that Omroep Brabant wrote about Saturday evening, in which it said that one passenger indicated that he wanted to get off the plane. That is about me, I thought. And I would like to tell my story about what happened that evening. By the way, I was not the only one who got off the plane.”
“I think I was in the first aircraft that had to remain on the ground because the control tower had spotted drones,” the Ossen resident begins his story. “The pilot immediately told us that we would be delayed because there was a drone report above the airport. If nothing was heard of the flying objects for half an hour, we could fly again. So everyone knew that we would be delayed by at least half an hour. The atmosphere in the aircraft was somewhat relaxed, because everyone realized that the pilot and flight attendants could do nothing about it.”
“The passengers were not afraid of the drones, but rather irritated.”
That half hour then turned into more than three hours with no prospect of a time when they would leave. “The atmosphere in the plane became a bit irritated. Every half hour that we were updated and heard that we still couldn’t go, the annoyance increased. There were loud sighs and disapproving noises. I had made a decision in the meantime. It was no longer worth it for me to go to London, because that was the destination. I wanted to get out.”
Melih’s request was discussed in the cockpit and approved. “I was told that we would leave at any moment, or I really didn’t want to go to London anymore.” For Melih it was a done deal. As a hobby, he makes videos about the service and experiences at an airport and airlines. “My return flight would be at 5 o’clock that night because I had to be back at work at nine o’clock. I didn’t feel like having a sleepless night.”
Because the Ossenaar has this special hobby, he also has photos and videos made of what happened inside and outside the plane. “So it was not fear or panic that I wanted to get out, but purely a practical consideration. I would not describe the atmosphere later that evening as panicky earlier, irritated. Passengers realized they would miss connections in London or be home very late.
“I didn’t see a drone during those hours of waiting.”
Melih is allowed to leave the plane and sees that he is not the only one. “Another expat, I suspect from India, came after me. He was in the same plane as me. So two passengers left that evening after all the delays due to flying drones. “I didn’t see those drones, but I did see vans with flashing lights, a police car and the military police. When I got to my car to drive home, my plane was still on the ground.” It would leave shortly after, which was around half past ten.
Here you can read all the stories about drones above Brabant.
