Shocked occupants of a plane that skidded severally before plunging into a river narrated their sordid moments before they were rescued.
The chartered Boeing 737 plane that was headed to Jacksonville Naval Air Station from the Guantanamo Bay reportedly skidded into a Florida river, with occupants saying the landing did not feel right.
While there were no fatalities involved in the accident, some 21 people were admitted to hospital.
But before the crash, the ill-fated plane had arrived four hours late.
What’s more, those alighting from the plane were warning passengers ready to get into the plane that the air conditioning system was damaged, and that the plane was actually unsafe.
“They were pretty universally miserable, so none of us were looking forward to getting onto the plane,” Bormann, a passenger, said. “We got on anyway.”
The plane first flew through a heavy storm with thunder, but what became the most frightening part of it all was the landing.
“The plane … literally hit the ground and then it bounced. It was clear that the pilot did not have complete control of the plane because it bounced some more, it swerved and tilted left and right,” she said. “The pilot was trying to control it but couldn’t, and then all of a sudden it smashed into something.”
Although the plane skidded into St. Johns River, it did not submerge.
However, the passengers’ belongings were washed into the back of the plane, with the pets checked into the luggage compartments feared dead.
Passengers say they helped one another to put on the life vests before climbing onto the wings and sliding atop rafts that would lead them to safety.