New details have emerged from the Qatar Airways horror last month where a passenger aircraft plunged 1,000 feet towards the sea as flyers screamed in terror.
The Qatar Airways 787 Boeing Dreamliner came within seconds of hitting the sea on January 10 shortly after take-off from Doha, Qatar. The aircraft managed to regain altitude – but not before falling for 24 seconds.
Meanwhile, passengers were given no explanation for the sudden drop in altitude by either cockpit or cabin crew.
Now, one of these passengers has opened up about the hair-raising experience. Lucas Andersson told Daily Mail that people in the cabin started screaming – some even threw up – as the plane lost altitude.
“After around 70 seconds into the flight and from out of nowhere there's this loud sound as the plane goes from pitch up to very much pitch down,” Andersson, 43, was quoted as saying by Daily Mail. “So, we definitely felt that and people screamed all around the cabin. A man in front of my sister even vomited, so no chance this sudden dive went unnoticed by anyone.”
Andersson said he tried looking out of the window but everything around him was pitch black. Meanwhile, his youngest son, sitting next to him, was terrified.
“It was very scary. It was a feeling of the plane being thrown towards the ground,” he recalled. The plane came within 850 feet of water before climbing up again.
Media reports said it was a pilot error that caused the plane to descend rapidly. The first officer reportedly lost control of the aircraft while trying to fly manually. Qatar Airways has launched an investigation into the incident.
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