An AirAsia flight from Perth to Bali has suddenly plunged 20,000ft in the air on October 15. A video shows the cabin crew were screaming, escalating passengers' panic.
The Airbus A320, carrying 151 people, suddenly descended from 34,000ft to 10,000ft in minutes, in response to a cabin pressurisation issue. However, the reaction of the crew even made passengers more frightened.
Videos show a member of cabin crew shouting "passengers, get down, passengers, get down" as oxygen masks were deployed.
"The masks dropped and everybody started panicking. Nobody told us what was going on,"
We were all pretty much saying goodbye to each other. It was really upsetting." A passenger said.
"The panic was escalated because of the behaviour of the staff, who were screaming and looked tearful and shocked." Another passenger said.
Another passenger added: "They went hysterical. There was no real panic before that. Then everyone panicked."
This Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017 image made from video shows an AirAsia plane at an airport in Perth, Australia. Passengers on the Indonesia AirAsia flight from Australia to the holiday island of Bali described a panicked flight crew announcing an emergency and oxygen masks dropping from the ceiling after their airliner lost cabin air pressure and rapidly descended. (Channel 9 via AP)
Finally, the plane managed to turn around and land safely back in Perth.The flight was diverted after a "technical issue”, according to a statement from AirAsia.