Jetstream
Perhaps you are being a bit harsh on the Evening Telegraph writer. As inflight emergency stories go, I think this one is fairly straightforward and moderately balanced for what could have been a real pot-boiler. Granted, "plummet" is a bit rich.
From the POV of a passenger, a little "plummeting" goes a long way in causing terror, especially when accompanied by a loud bang or two. And smoke filling the cabin is enough to get just about anyone's heart thumping, whether it's Jesus or Brit'ny Spears or one's self doing the driving.
That inflight situations occasionally scare the hell out of certain passengers is a reality. I think the healthy spin to put on it is that some incidents are bound to occur with so many planes flying so many different places, but skillfull crew, well thought-out procedures, systems redundancy, etc. convert virtually all of these mechanical situations into positive outcomes. (sound of trumpets)