Tourist films as airline passengers told to prepare for emergency water landing
A British tourist filmed one of the most distressing episodes of air travel when passengers were told they would need to make an emergency landing.
Passengers on the Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles were told to put on their life jackets and remove their shoes by the cabin crew that remained resolute and calm.
Ethan Williams, a 25-year-old from the UK, recorded with his phone as passengers on board the Boeing 777-300ER prepped for the emergency descent.
A concerned Williams looks at the camera and says: "I'm not sure what's happening but there's something happening on this flight."
"All the flight attendants are running around like crazy and warning signs going off, hopefully it's not anything too bad and we'll be alright."
Williams films his fellow passengers as they don their yellow life vests and receive instructions on the brace position.
As the plane starts to descend in the video posted to YouTube on Thursday and viewed more than 250,000, Williams wonders where the plane would land as it travels over the Pacific Ocean.
In the edited video the cabin crew announce they expect a "normal landing" – not the sea ditch they were expecting.
The plane dumped its fuel as it approached a US Air Force base located on the remote Aleutian Island.
Cabin lights dim and passengers sit in near silence except for the cry of a baby and the rumbling engines.
Passengers then erupt in applause when the plane touches down safely, with the 276 praising the 18-member crew.
A preliminary investigation found a fault in a cooling fan that was emitting smoke "detected largely around the cockpit area," the airline said.
The passengers were taken picked up buy another plane and continued on their way to LA.
Williams praised the crews' professionalism on YouTube, saying: "The crew were absolutely amazing and handled the situation so well!"
Despite the frequency of airplane disasters appearing in the news it remains one of the safest ways to travel
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