Mask at 30,000 ft: The strange case of flight 5114

Strange happenings on Monarch flight 5114 to Sharm El Sheik (20/06/09), where your correspondent was witness to the unheralded dropping of an air supply mask over seat 3F. A man nearby had been dozing, woke to see the apparatus and appeared to fear the worst; but the not entirely able woman sat beneath the hanging plastic seemed comparatively calm.

Attempts to resecure the rogue cabinet that released the mask proved unsuccessful, and a practical stewardess opted to lock it down with duct tape, assuring the lady that she would be attended to swiftly in a crisis – as her mask was now sealed off. Understandably, the woman asked to be moved, perhaps to the seats with extra legroom – but was told no, she would have to pay for that. Is this a case of compromising safety for money? No disaster occurred so we never had to find out, but it casts a curiously nuts-and-bolts light on the once glamorous world of air travel.