A plane carrying serial entrepreneur and former Hollywood studio executive Eric Edmeades and his family was reportedly forced to make an emergency landing after losing cabin pressure at 39,370 feet (12,000 meters).
The Eurowings A330-300 with registration D-AIKA was flying as flight number 4Y007 departed from Puerto Plata and was off the coast of Ireland when the incident occurred.
Loss of Cabin Pressure – As the flight neared the Irish coastline, the cabin crew noticed a loss of cabin pressure. Passenger oxygen masks were deployed, and the pilots commenced an emergency descent maneuver, which is the correct life-saving action in this situation. According to The Aviation Herald, the plane descended from 40,000 feet to 3,000 feet in 6 minutes in order to make it possible for the passengers and crew to breathe without oxygen masks, which only last for about 15 minutes after deployment.
Edmeades, one of 179 passengers, was traveling with his partner and step-daughter from their vacation home in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, to Tallinn, Estonia, where Edmeades was due to teach business and marketing at Mindvalley University. Edmeades managed to get to Estonia after the incident and told the story on stage. He remarked, “It is quite a thing to face immediate death, but it is another thing to be in your seat, with an oxygen mask on, go through a rapid descent, and then spend the next two or so hours contemplating your life and the fact that this might be the end.”
Edmeades described the sequence of events, “Suddenly there were blaring alarms, and the cabin crew sprinted through the cabin. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling, and the pilot shouted instructions so loudly that they were distorted, so we could not hear what he was saying. And then the plane went into a steep dive. Mostly, the passengers were eerily calm, but there were tears, prayers, and screaming from some of the children in the business class cabin.”
Edmeades, a Canadian entrepreneur, is the former CEO of California-based Kerner Optical, the famed special effects shop with credits including Avatar, Transformers, Elysium, and films in the Iron Man and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises. He was also the founder of Kernerworks, a military research, and development company, and the creator of Award winning medical simulation technology.
Edmeades was also a recipient of a Senate 150 medal presented by the Canadian Senate for his work in ‘improving the quality of people’s lives.’ through his various business endeavors.
The plane carrying Edmeades and his family was scheduled to fly to Frankfurt; after the emergency, the pilot contemplated and announced to the passengers possible landings in London and Brussels before finally landing the plane in Dusseldorf. No injuries were reported. The cause of the incident has not yet been disclosed by the airline.
To learn more about Eric Edmeades, visit: https://ericedmeades.com
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