Terror As Jet Falls from Sky
Passengers told of their horror today, as the packed holiday jet they were travelling on, suddenly plunged 20 ft straight down. The Airbus 737 was cruising at 58,000ft, at a speed of 735 mph when, with no warning at all, it appeared to lose control and plummeted towards the earth as the pilots grappled with the controls, struggling to regain control of the aircraft. Mr Eselwene, (56), from Isipingo said that one minute they were flying along normally, then the plane just fell like a stone. " It was absolute chaos in the cabin. People were screaming and one member of cabin crew had to grab the arm of the chair to stop herself tripping. It knocked my glass of coke, clean of my tray!" Mr Eselwenes travelling companion, Ms Nyowopo (24) went on to say, "The plane was full of childrens and babies who were all crying afterwards. Actually, they had been screaming all flight, but they definitely screamed a bit louder when we dropped down so far. I was terrified and I thought we were all going to die!
Early speculation into the cause of this near catastophy, seems to be centering around the possibility of the aircraft having flown into clear air turbulence which is a gap with no air in it, but foul play has yet to be ruled out. The aircraft went on the make a safe landing at George airport, where anxious relatives were waiting to meet the passengers. The aircraft received a thorough check from engineers during the 30 minute turn around. The airline has stated that it can not, at this point, comment on the incident until the full facts have become known, but that a full and frank investigation will take place immediately.