Passengers scream and pray as tropical storm batters plane mid-flight: ‘We saw that we were not going to survive’
In airspace, everyone can hear you scream.
Footage captured the dramatic moment that passengers freaked out aboard a plane that was getting battered by a tropical storm midflight.
“I have never experienced such bad weather on a flight,” Passenger Zuleima Ebratt told Jam Press of the “crazy,” spectacle, which occurred aboard a flight from Medellín to Barranquilla in Colombia yesterday.
The flight, Avianca Airlines 8586, had reportedly been rocked by a tropical gale that lashed the northern part of the country with 45mph winds.
“It was specifically when we began to descend to land in Barranquilla,” Ebratt recounted to local publication El Tiempo. “Up to that point the captain told us ‘We are going to land in Barranquilla’ and everything was normal. Suddenly, we entered a fog, we could no longer see anything and the turbulence began.”
In the heart-pounding footage, the aircraft can be seen shaking uncontrollably, causing passengers to scream and recite prayers like something out of a disaster movie.
“Virgin of Carmen, Hail Mary most pure, God save you…! My God, please help us,” chanted one petrified flyer, per El Tiempo.
“Of course, we were stressed, desperate, everyone was crying, screaming, others were praying, because we really saw that we were not going to survive,” said Ebratt.
The pummeling was so fierce that it prevented the pilot from landing, prompting them to divert the flight and touch down in the coastal city of Cartagena.
The flight was finally able to continue onto its destination of Barranquilla several hours later than anticipated.
In another clip, passengers are seen applauding the pilot and cabin crew after the plane safely alights on the tarmac.
Unfortunately, many people on the ground weren’t as lucky.
The storm pounded numerous areas in the departments of Atlántico, Magdalena and Bolívar, uprooting trees, damaging roofs and knocking out power in several municipalities.
Local authorities and relief agencies are currently assessing the damage and working to restore essential services.
