What was happening when it happened?
We use the past simple for an action that is finished — one thing happened, and then it was over. We use the past continuous (was/were + verb-ing) for an action that was already in progress at a particular moment in the past. The two forms often work together in a story: the past continuous sets the scene — something is already happening — and the past simple shows the shorter action that suddenly interrupts it, usually introduced by when.
Last week’s Ryanair engine failure over Greece is full of exactly this pattern — a background action already under way, suddenly cut across by something shorter and more dramatic. Look at the tenses as you work through the practice below.
Try these
Complete each sentence with the correct form of the verb in brackets — past simple or past continuous.
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The Boeing 737 ____ towards its cruising height when the crew heard a loud bang. (climb)
There are two actions here of different lengths — the aircraft’s climb was still going on when the bang happened, so the ongoing one needs ‘was/were + -ing’.
Use the past continuous (‘was climbing’) for the longer action already in progress, and the past simple (‘heard’) for the shorter action that interrupted it.
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The plane’s right engine ____ what experts call an uncontained failure. (suffer)
Nothing here is ‘in progress’ when something else happens — it’s one finished event, so avoid the ‘-ing’ form.
This reports a single completed event as a plain fact, with no other action interrupting it, so the past simple is correct.
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Choose the sentence that best matches the article: what was the scene on the ground the moment FR1879 touched down at Thessaloniki?
The article describes paramedics already in position on the ground as a background scene at the moment of landing — that ongoing, in-progress picture is exactly what the past continuous is for.
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Ryanair ____ it was cooperating fully with the investigation. (say)
This is one finished act of speaking, not a scene in progress — the past continuous would suggest Ryanair was in the middle of saying it when something else happened.
A statement reported as a single completed act — no ongoing action is being interrupted, so the past simple fits.
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His wife and several other passengers ____ on to him tightly when the cabin crew rushed to help. (hold)
Think about which action was already in progress and which one happened at a single point — the holding was the backdrop here.
The holding was already under way — an ongoing action — when the shorter, completed action (the crew rushing to help) happened, so it needs the past continuous.
Watch out: don’t use the past continuous just because an action took some time. “The crew flew in circles for 30 minutes” is past simple, not was flying — it’s reported as one complete manoeuvre with a clear result (burning off fuel), not as a scene interrupted by something else. Save the past continuous for the moments something else cuts across it.
Now make it real
Think of a time something unexpected happened while you were in the middle of something routine — a delay, a technical issue, an unusual call over the radio, anything from your own flying or work. Write 1–2 true sentences using one action in progress (past continuous) interrupted by one shorter action (past simple).
Before you check your sentence, ask yourself:
- Does it show one action already in progress and one shorter action that interrupted it?
- Would a reader understand exactly what you were doing, and what suddenly happened?
- Did you use was/were + -ing for the background action and the simple past for the interrupting one?
- Capital letter at the start, full stop at the end?
- I was taxiing to the runway when ATC told us to hold position for a vehicle crossing.
- We were cruising at FL350 when the cabin crew reported that a passenger needed medical attention.
Now rewrite your sentence — can you make the background action feel more vivid, or add exactly when the interruption happened?
CEFR Level B1 / ICAO Level 4
If you’d like to hear a similar emergency unfold in real time, listen to our account of an engine separation on departure from Bahrain — notice how many sentences set the scene with the past continuous before the past simple breaks in.
