Post by corsair67 on Mar 1, 2006 8:31:14 GMT 12
Panic in air as hostie yells: 'We're crashing'
March 01, 2006.
LONDON: Virgin Atlantic has launched an investigation into claims a flight attendant panicked during a turbulent flight and repeatedly shouted to passengers: "We're crashing."
London's The Independent reported pandemonium broke out on a flight from Gatwick to Las Vegas when it was hit by storms and plummeted thousands of metres within seconds.
A man was hurled to the ceiling of the cabin and others clung to seats, but passengers became more alarmed when an attendant on the Boeing 747 began screaming, the paper said.
Claire Daley, one of 451 people on board, hoped the crew would calm her nerves. "I turned round to look at our hostess for reassurance and she screamed: 'We're crashing, we're crashing, we're crashing'," she told the paper.
"And I just thought: 'It's over; if an air hostess is telling us we are crashing'. I really thought we were crashing," Ms Daley said.
"She screamed every time the plane dropped, and when she screamed the whole of the back of the plane screamed.
"It was terrifying. I was almost hyperventilating. I was sobbing - I thought we weren't going to make it."
Virgin Atlantic confirmed the flight had encountered severe turbulence and said reports of the cabin crew's behaviour were being investigated.
