Flight crew accused of 'screaming' as plane plummets 20,000 feet in minutes
A scary moment up in the air turned even more horrific as passengers aboard a plummeting plane claimed the flight crew started freaking out.
AirAsia flight QZ535 left from Perth, Australia Sunday and headed to Bali, Indonesia. However, shortly after takeoff the plane dropped almost 23,800 feet in nine minutes, according to the Associated Press.
The pressurization issue in the cabin prompted oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling amid emergency announcements from the crew, which were apparently far from calm.
One passenger, Clare Askew, said that, "The panic was escalated because of the behavior of staff who were screaming, looked tearful and shocked." Another passenger told news outlets, "They went hysterical. There was no real panic before that. Then everyone panicked."
Videos posted to social media showed the chaos.
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Adding to the onboard confusion were emergency announcements coming in in different languages -- so not all passengers were clear on what was going on.
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The airline has apologized for the incident that shook the 145 passengers on board. A mechanical issue apparently caused the cabin to depressurize and forced pilots to descend. The flight is under investigation.
One passenger desperately messaged her family thinking the flight was doomed, Australian outlet SBS reported.
Not a smooth flight.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
