British passengers on an EasyJet flight from Corfu to London that was hit by brutal turbulence on Monday have described their terror as the plane suddenly plummeted, seriously injuring two crew members.
The British airline’s Airbus A320, flight EZY8120, departed Corfu Airport in Greece at 12:44 local time on Monday and was headed to London Gatwick with 181 passengers and crew on board.
But just 20 minutes into the flight, the EasyJet plane hit turbulence while flying at 485mph and at an altitude of 28,000ft, violently pinning two cabin crew members who were preparing to serve food against the ceiling.
One suffered a severely sprained ankle and the other broke a leg, according to witnesses on board, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.
Passenger Sharleigh told MailOnline: ‘I honestly thought we were going to die and I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.
“The pilot said we might experience ‘mild turbulence’… the next thing we knew the plane started shaking fiercely and suddenly it dropped. Everyone was screaming, my friend woke up and we hugged each other because we thought we were going to die,” she said.
Another passenger, Melanie, described the experience as “being in free fall on a roller coaster.”
‘Literally out of nowhere the plane just went down and then it had to go up again, I felt like I was going up and coming back down.
“I got into a kind of support position and screamed… The whole plane was screaming, my niece was sitting in front of me and she was crying her eyes out. It was absolutely shocking.”
“I’m not a nervous person when flying, but I was extremely nervous the whole way back, holding on to the seat in front of me with all my might.”
Flight EZY8120 is seen moments before boarding on the runway in Corfu under a changing sky
An easyJet Airbus A320 made an emergency landing at Rome’s Fiumicino airport after experiencing severe turbulence
Flight tracking data showed the plane deviating from its flight path and landing at an airport near Rome.
The notice sent by Greece’s civil protection agency warned passengers about inclement weather
The injured passengers and crew were met by EasyJet crew, airport staff and paramedics who provided immediate assistance upon landing in Rome.
“Both crew members crashed into the galley ceiling,” a flight attendant said.
“One had a severely sprained ankle and the other a broken tibia.”
Another passenger called Jodi told MailOnline: ‘I was sitting in the middle of the plane and suddenly it felt like we had hit a wall… The plane then dropped again and shook from side to side. That’s when people started screaming, shouting and crying and the cabin lights were flashing on and off.
‘One of the most distressing parts of it all was that the captain didn’t announce anything over the loudspeaker to reassure us, so all the passengers were extremely scared that it would happen again.
‘Two members of staff in the rear of the aircraft were not wearing seat belts and were injured. We could see one of them lying on the floor at the rear of the aircraft.
‘The rest of the staff blocked our view of the employee on the floor as paramedics tried to lift her onto a stretcher, but we could hear her howling and screaming in pain.’
Melanie added: “Everyone seemed fine but then an announcement came over the loudspeakers asking if there was any medical staff on board. It became clear that the cabin crew had been injured… We heard them moaning, it was horrible to hear.”
Paramedics immediately treated the injured flight attendants, while a replacement crew and aircraft were arranged to allow the passengers to continue to London Gatwick on Monday evening, some seven hours later.
The plane involved in the incident remained parked in Rome the day after the incident for security checks.
Passengers praised EasyJet cabin crew and airport staff who they said handled the incident “exceptional”.
“EasyJet handled the situation very well. They diverted us to Rome, brought the paramedics on board and took the two crew members to hospital,” said one passenger.
‘We were then taken to the terminal while another crew flew out to take us home. The new crew gave us a lot of confidence and the captain spoke to us in the cockpit. We were kept informed throughout the return flight, which departed at approximately 8:15 that evening.
‘The new pilot and crew were exceptional at keeping us informed and calm.’
At least two people were injured on an EasyJet flight from Corfu to London
The pilots were forced to make an emergency landing at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.
On Monday, southern Italy was hit by severe weather. This image taken off the coast of Salento shows a huge swashbuckler
An easyJet spokeswoman confirmed the incident in a statement to MailOnline.
‘Flight EZY8120 from Corfu to London Gatwick on 19 August experienced turbulence which sadly resulted in injuries to two cabin crew members.
‘As a result, the captain made the decision to divert to Rome, where the crew members were received by medical services.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s top priority and our pilots are trained to manage turbulence incidents.
‘The flight landed normally in Rome, where customers were served in the terminal and a replacement crew and aircraft were arranged to continue the flight to London Gatwick.’
Meanwhile, Italy’s aviation safety agency ANSV said it had launched an investigation into the incident to determine whether the turbulence was a sudden and unforeseeable event, known as “clear air turbulence,” or whether it was visible on the plane’s weather radar but underestimated by the pilots.
“Given the type and severity of the injuries reported, we have launched a safety investigation, classifying the incident as an ‘accident’,” the ANSV said in a press release.
But the agency added that investigators will also have to clarify why the pilots chose to divert to Rome instead of the closer airports of Bari or Brindisi.
The shocking incident occurred at a time when southern Italy was being battered by inclement weather and took place just hours after the Bayesian superyacht capsized and sank off Sicily after being crushed by a deadly swashbuckler.
The £30m ship sank just minutes after being hit by a freak gale while anchored off the coast of Porticello in Sicily shortly before 5am on Monday.
Southern Italy was hit by strong winds and storms on Monday
Search teams are heading to the site of the sinking of the Bayesian this morning as the operation to find those still missing enters its third day.
Rescue teams and divers from the Italian fire brigade are working through the night as the rescue operation for the missing people on board continues.
A photo provided on August 19, 2024 by the Perini Navi Press Office shows the ‘Bayesian’ sailboat
Although 15 people were rescued after the disaster, six people, including billionaire Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, and a Morgan Stanley bank boss, remain missing.
The search for the missing entered its third day this morning, with rescue divers continuing their efforts to reach the cabins in the hope of finding them.
An engineer said the missing passengers could still be alive in air pockets 164 feet below the surface, meaning divers, who can only stay underwater for ten minutes at a time due to the depth of the wreck, are racing against time.
Their operation has been hampered by the difficulty of entering the ship, with divers forced to cut their way through a 3cm-thick porthole to gain access to one area and other parts of the wreck blocked by furniture.
An expert at the scene said one of the first targets of the official investigation into the tragedy, launched by prosecutors at nearby Termini Imerese, would be whether the yacht’s crew had closed the access hatches to the ship before the storm hit.
Investigators will examine whether appropriate measures were taken, given the forecast for bad weather overnight, and whether any of the crew members are criminally liable.