Emergency exit opened

How Vienna experienced a fire fiasco in an Airbus

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/krone.tv, zVg)

"Dad, I think there's a fire here!" - a sentence you don't want to hear on board an airplane. But that's exactly what happened to Oliver Jankai and his family on their trip to America. Before take-off, the Viennese was able to throw a burning rucksack out of the jet, saving the lives of 191 people.

"You can't even imagine what we've experienced in the last few days. All the coincidences too!" reports Oliver Jankai in an interview with Krone. The destination of the trip to America was several Copa América soccer matches. As a Messi fan and member of FC Barcelona, the final match between Argentina and Colombia was a must-see. "We took part in the raffle and that's how we got tickets," says the 50-year-old. 

"The fact that we were in San Francisco was a coincidence. We actually only planned from day to day." After all, the plan was to take the plane from California to Miami to the soccer stadium. "When we boarded the jet in San Francisco, I was a bit annoyed that we had an Airbus model, where there is no entertainment on board, such as TV. After all, you fly for several hours. But after a few minutes we had our own entertainment," recalls son Jan.

Jan Jankai with dad Oliver

(Bild: krone.tv)

"Flames behind my seat"
The 20-year-old and his brother, who is three years younger, had noticed the smell of burning. They alerted their father. "I immediately warned him that it couldn't be the jet because it had been checked. But then the smell got worse and worse and I saw flames behind my seat."

The Viennese landlord immediately jumped up. "But I was already wearing my seatbelt. So I quickly unfastened my seatbelt. Then I really thought the plane was on fire. I just saw the flames and alerted the stewardess and asked for a fire extinguisher. But she didn't have one. No fire blanket either."

Passengers were able to use the slide to get to safety.

(Bild: zVg)

Stewardess obstructed the opening of the emergency door
Son Jan instinctively opened the emergency exit. "But the stewardess stopped me there too. There was so much smoke in the cabin. We could only breathe with difficulty. My dad then threw me the extinguished but smoking rucksack and I wanted to throw it out of the jet. We didn't know what was causing the fire. The cabin crew tried to stop it again."

But the Viennese landlord made short work of it: "I just took the bag and threw it out."

Three people were injured as a result of this incident - including Oliver Jankai's younger son. "He has minor burns. He's fine now. The other people were injured by the evacuation." The pilot thanked the two Viennese: "Quick thinking saves lives!"

However, no one from American Airlines has yet contacted the lifesavers. "We are really shocked that the evacuation took four minutes. The way the flight crew acted was irresponsible," agree father and son. 

The back row was questioned for hours by the police and FBI. Finally, the investigation was concluded: A power bank with a lithium battery was connected to a laptop and had caught fire.

Coincidences right to the end
And then there was another coincidence: "A paramedic called Austria treated us. All these coincidences were really amazing," says Oliver Jankai. Nevertheless, the two are not afraid of flying: "The likelihood of something like this happening to us again is very low. Besides, flying is simply the safest way to travel." On the return flight to Austria, however, the landlord looked in the plane to see where the nearest fire extinguisher was.