
© REUTERS/ Enny Nuraheni/Files
Passengers aboard Air-Asia Flight D7237 from Perth, Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were
startled by a terrifying bang outside of the plane, before the jet began to violently shake up and down for 90 uninterrupted minutes.The seats shook so much that the 359 passengers of the Airbus A330 felt like they were "sitting on top of a washing machine," as one unnamed passenger put it. The first minutes of the shaking were reportedly the worst, according to several passengers, who believed that the plane was going to go down.
"I was crying a lot," Sophie Nicolas told Australia's ABC. "A lot of people were crying, trying to call their moms and stuff. But we couldn't really do anything. Just wait and trust the captain."
"It was just like a small explosion almost from the left wing, and the plane just started shuddering," she added.
The captain, however, informed the passengers that they should pray for a safe landing. "Please listen to everything," an airline staffer told the frightened passengers over the intercom. "Our survival depends on your cooperating. Hopefully everything will turn out for the best."
Comment: Further reading: All of CNN's anti-Russian fake news must now be approved by executive editors