A pilot on a Raleigh-bound Southwest Airlines flight announced over the loudspeaker the plane was “going down” — descending, he meant — before the plane did something of a nosedive to the passengers’ horror.
In an email to a passenger obtained by CNN, Southwest said the pilot “inadvertently activated the PA system” as he informed flight attendants that he was descending because of an unexpected, but not fatal, drop in cabin pressure.
“At first it sounded like someone was coming over the PA to talk. Then it sounded like shots through the cabin, twice, back to back,” passenger Grace Stroud told CNN. “Seconds later, the panicked captain said, ‘We’re in trouble; we’re going down.'”
Southwest Airlines Flight 3426, from Tampa, Fla., was approaching its destination when the pilot noticed a drop in cabin pressure, a spokesperson for the airline told CNN. The plane descended before leveling out and then landing safely at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
[CNN]