Wrong recording panics plane passengers

DUBLIN, Ireland, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Irish airline Aer Lingus has apologized for the distress caused when a cabin crew mistakenly played a recording saying an emergency landing was imminent.

Passengers on the Dublin, Ireland, to Paris flight said an initial recording in English informed passengers of upcoming turbulence and told them to fasten their seat belts, but a follow-up announcement in French utilized the wrong recording and told passengers to prepare for an emergency landing, Britain's The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

English speaking passengers said French travelers, who made up the majority of the 70 people on board the plane, were panicked by the announcement.

"The French man sleeping next to me woke up and looked very startled," one passenger said of the Aug. 4 incident. "He then translated what had been said, that the plane was about to make an emergency landing and to await instructions from the pilot. I got quite alarmed. The woman behind me was crying. All the French totally freaked out."

The airline said the recording was played by mistake and the cabin crew quickly apologized.

"The was a malfunction of the public address system and we apologize to our passengers," an Aer Lingus spokesman said. "This sort of thing happens very rarely."