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',"
"And I just thought: 'It's over; if an air hostess is telling us we are crashing'. I really thought we were crashing,"
"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."