Ryanair stewardess explains plane is delayed because 'we don't want to die'

Ryanair, Ireland's ultra-budget airliner, has issued an apology after a flight attendant’s announcement about ice-encrusted wings whipped passengers on board into a frenzy of scorn.

Travellers on the Glasgow to Dublin flight were already well and truly fed up after enduring an eight hour postponement, when a member of the flight crew took to the intercom to give them an update.

"The captain cannot take off when we have ice on the wings," the stewardess informed passengers.

"We don't want to die."

At this, as viral footage of the incident shows, the cabin descended into uproar as the vexed passengers collectively rolled their eyes and groaned at jet-engine volume.

As one of the unfortunate passengers, "Ella", remarked on her Instagram page, the announcement could not have come at a worse time.

"This is what happens when you’ve been delayed almost 8 hours, everyone's at a lost (sic) including staff 'we don’t want to die' absolute mayhem," she wrote.

"All hell was breaking loose when a member of staff made this outrageous announcement.”

True to form, Ryanair, which once floated the idea of charging passengers for toilet paper, tried to placate the passengers with a $7.20 gift voucher, which works out to less than a dollar for every hour they were delayed.

In what is probably bad news for the woman who made the announcement, the carrier said it "will be speaking to the crew member involved and (we) apologise for the regrettable comment she made in the heat of the moment".