A Few Thoughts...

 ...on this:

Passengers on Ryanair flight prayed as the cabin filled with smoke

I was only bashing Ryanair the other week, or at least their boss, who's a huge tit. At least it seems he hires competent pilots

I'm not religious and certainly not the praying type, but I am terrified of flying, so I probably would have been praying to all and sundry, had I been on that plane

A couple of things caught my eye when reading the story though

Despite France's strict Covid quarantine rules for arriving Britons, the passengers were allowed to board another plane shortly after and continued to Portugal.  

I thought that was a strange thing to say. I mean did the author really think the French authorities might start Covid testing every bugger before they got off the plane? It has become a mad Covid world though, so it's possible someone in the French border Force was wondering if they should break out the LFTs

Being scared of flying though, it was the words, 'board another plane shortly', that surprised me the most. I'm not sure you'd have got me on another plane shortly, if at all

'The crew were first class. The pilots remained totally calm issuing very clear instructions on procedures and the brace position.

As I said in my earlier piece about Ryanair, I gave up flying them because they were just too budget. At least the same doesn't apply to the pilots. And maybe the cabin crew when they've got an emergency on and aren't just serving the shitty food

Following its landing, travellers sat for 15 to 20 minutes before they were taken into the airport and handed food in a box.

Maybe that was the emergency, eating Ryanair plane food. Maybe they just really had to stop for a bite, half way through the flight. I don't know what 'food in a box' is, but I bet is more appetising that food on the flight

The pilots initiated the dive of 35,000ft after a fire broke out inside the aircraft, according to plane spotters in France.  
Ryanair has since confirmed that a technical fault caused smoke in the cabin.

Interesting. You're plummeting to what could be your eventual splattering on the runway and there is smoke in the cabin. You light a last cigarette. Do the crew tell you to put it out? If you refuse and survive the incident, do you go to prison for lighting a fag on a plane?

I'm guessing the answer to both of those is yes