Siberian Airlines flight hits soaring temperatures after air conditioning malfunction

Passengers claimed it reached 50C onboard

Passengers began to feel unwell onboard the overheating flight across Russia (E1.RU/YouTube)

Passengers endured the flight from hell when an air conditioning malfunction caused a plane to reach temperatures as high as 50C, according to one traveller’s estimate.

The incident took place onboard a domestic service from Novosibirsk to Yekaterinburg in Russia, operated by S7 (also known as Siberian Airlines).

During the two-hour flight, the temperature varied wildly from roasting to freezing, passenger Vladimir Shakhrin told REN TV.

“When we boarded the plane, the air from the ventilation system was an absolutely unacceptable temperature. I put my hand up and it seemed to me that it burned my hand – probably it felt like 45-50 degrees.”

Shakhrin said he complained to the flight attendants, saying “something is wrong here,” but was assured “everything will be fine.”

The plane spent 30 minutes on the tarmac before taxiing to the runway.

“All this time hot air was being poured out,” said Shakhrin. “The worst thing was that it began to smell like burning wiring.”

Other passengers started saying, “We’ll be leaving now,” “Stop the plane,” and “I don’t want to fly, your plane is not in order”.

Following take-off, cold air started to circulate according to Shakhrin: “After 20 minutes, everything seemed to have stabilized.

“But our joy was short-lived, because after half an hour from there the hot air began again.”

He said the whole flight was blighted by extreme temperatures – either burning or icy air – and that two women became ill as a result.

“They went out where the flight attendants were near the kitchen, it was a little cooler,” he said. “It was evident that the passengers were in a terrible state.”

Flight attendants tried to calm overheating passengers down (E1.RU/YouTube)

There were clearly problems with the air conditioning system, according to Shakhrin.

“To be honest, I haven’t had such a bad flight in my entire life,” he concluded, adding that one of the flight attendants admitted she had encountered a similar problem on that particular plane in the past.

An S7 spokesperson told Mail Online: “Specialists are now working with (the aircraft) to find out the reason.

“I can only confirm that there was high temperature in the cabin throughout the flight.”