A mum-of-two thought she was ‘going to die’ when her flight from Singapore to Heathrow ‘fell out of the sky’.
Jade Crosland, 31 - who was flying with her partner and their two young children on the British Airways flight from Singapore to Heathrow - says the aircraft went into 'freefall' for what felt like 'a thousand feet’ on Friday (16 June) at around 3am.
The British passenger, who runs a hair salon in Australia, says she was sat with her one-year-old Harper, who was sleeping in a bassinet, while her partner Henry Trier, 32, was sat with their son Hugo, three, a few rows behind them.
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“It was a completely normal flight at the beginning - the cabin crew were serving drinks and I was half asleep and my daughter was in the bassinet,” she told the Daily Mail.
“The seatbelt sign came on with no announcement as I was half waking up, so I thought I had better get Harper out as when the sign is on you have to strap your infant to you.”
As Jade stood up to strap her daughter in ‘the plane dropped literally a thousand feet’.
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“Everyone flew up in the air, everyone was screaming,” she said.
“One of the cabin crew was knocked out when a trolley hit him in the head.
“It all happened so quickly that they were still out with their trolleys.”
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As the turbulence calmed down the worried mum hurried to get her daughter out of her crib that fortunately she did not fly out of.
“I was in complete panic trying to unstrap her and the cabin crew said ‘it's her arm, it's her arm!’ as I was trying to get her out,” Jade said.
Before she was able to strap her daughter in safely the aircraft ‘dropped again’.
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“It was shaking the whole time and there was this massive drop and everyone screaming,” she said.
“I honestly thought we were going to die.
“I strapped her to me squeezing holding her thinking we're going to die and ‘this is it’.
“The passengers were all looking at each other and we were all thinking ‘this is it we're all going to go into the sea and die’.”
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She thought she was ‘going to die’ and that she would not ‘be able to see’ her family who were sat behind them.
Thankfully, the passengers lived to tell the story and the British Airways flight was forced to turn back to Singapore on Friday, where the plane was checked for structural damage.
A British Airways spokesman said: “Safety is always our priority and we're looking after our crew after one of our flights experienced a rare episode of severe turbulence.
“Our highly trained team on board reassured customers and the aircraft returned to Singapore as a precaution.
‘We've apologised to customers for the delay to their flight and provided them with hotel accommodation and information on their consumer rights.
“We're re-booking customers onto the next available flights with us and other airlines.”
LADbible has contacted British Airways for additional comment.
Anish Vij