How close was I to becoming a death statistic?
I was a passenger aboard a flight from Stansted (London) to Antalya (Turkey)on March 12th 2008. I preface this note with the statement that I am not a nervous flyer, I am a business flyer who travels in excess of 40 flights per year and have done so for the past 20 years. During this time, I have experienced a variety of phenomenon associated with flying as a passenger on scheduled and charter flights. Its also worth saying that I’m no armchair pilot either.
The aircraft we flew in that day was a Boeing 737 series 800 aircraft. I was seated in seat 29F. This was a scheduled flight with a Turkish airline.
We departed from Stansted late.
When we commenced our descent for landing at Antalya the flight was perfectly normal.
As we started to descend into Antalya bright lightning flashes were visible and hammer heads of nearby clouds were easily seen in the flashes.
The descent continued and pretty soon we found ourselves on finals in the midst of a particularly violent electrical storm.I guess we were about 1500 feet high at this stage. The aircraft was pitched about violently. Significantly more so than I have ever experienced in over 20 years of flying as a commercial passenger. There were both significant and violent falls and increases in height, airspeed and direction. Heaviness and lightness sensations in the seat like I have never experienced before The flight crew continued their approach notwithstanding the increased tempo of the storm.
By this stage passengers throughout the aircraft were screaming. Many around me were vomiting. Almost all were clearly scared. As indeed was I. The overwhelming smell in the cabin was of vomit and excreta. Overhead lockers started popping open and baggage rained down.
The approach continued and the aircraft continued to buck and started to roll to the right accompanied by screaming engines et al.We were much lower by this stage - I guess no more than 250-500 feet. At one stage I looked down on street lights and cars at a height whereby details of the cars below (ie the occupants were visible to me). The aircraft wings seemed to be at 90 degrees to the ground at this stage. Lightning and heavy rain were constant and the aircraft was evidently being buffeted by severe winds of a vertical as well as horizontal direction. The fuselage was bucking in both vertical and horizontal planes. the movement was sufficient to throw passengers from their seats who were not buckled in.
To cap it all - at this stage the cabin crew immediately behind me were saying prayers!
I could see that vertical movement of the wings was constant and it was self evident that we stood no chance of a successful landing in such conditions. Finally we pulled away and started to climb - rapidly. Our route however took us into even greater turbulent air.
The person flying the aircraft made 2 attempts to land in these appalling conditions and (I feel) luckily avoided catastrophe before finally deciding to abandon his attempts and fly his now terrified passengers to Ercan in Northern Cyprus.
On arrival at Ercan, many passengers were so scared that they were unable to stand. Many were visibly shaking and very distressed. When I left the aircraft via the front entrance, my route took me along a path of seats and cabin carpet badly soiled with vomit and excreta.
I am puzzled by flight deck behavior and wonder whether we were placed at unnecessary risk. As a passenger, it seems to me that the fact that the attempts to land were abandoned and the flight diverted to its ultimate destination of Ercan, is an indication that all was far from well on the flight deck. However, I may be wrong.
For what its worth, (and it may not be much,) my own feelings are our survival was due to the design engineers and the guys on the shopfloor at the Boeing Aircraft Company. Looking back I was amazed that any structure could withstand what was thrown at us that evening. However, are my congratulations misplaced? Should I thank the flightcrew? What do any pilots think?