TERRIFYING photographs show why you should always wear a seatbelt on a flight – event when the warning light is off.
Phillip Crossdale claims to have suffered severe whiplash after his flight from Barbados encountered extreme turbulence.
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Phillip, from Yorkshire, told the Mirror that he thought he was going to die when the plane started to fall from the sky and oxygen masks dropped down.
Phillip told the paper that the seatbelt signs were not on when the plane flew into the freak weather event.
He said that some people were on there way to the toilet or stood up checking hand luggage when the turbulence hit.
He said: “The seatbelt signs weren’t on and so people were getting up and going to the toilet or checking hand luggage, and next thing we hit severe turbulence.
“It was very very shaky, then next breath we just plummeted. Everybody that wasn’t fastened in literally went and hit the ceiling. Whether it be once or twice.”
The passenger, who was on a Maleth Aero flight – chartered by P&O cruises – two days before Christmas, compared the scenes on board the plane to 90s movie Matrix.
He said: “I remember it was like I was in a Matrix film. Like Neo rising up and then the next thing it’s all come crashing down. I thought I was going to die, the plane was going to crash. Everybody was screaming.
“There was stuff flying around everywhere, there were masks coming down from the ceiling. You see those masks and you’re automatically ‘oh my God, this is the end’.”
Phillip, who suffers from a neurological disorder, said the crew on the P&O charter flight were serving food during the freakish weather event.
“If they had had some indication from pilot that something was going to happen they wouldn’t have been serving food,” he said.
He described desperate scenes as food and other objects flew around the cabin.
He said: “I could see that the masks had come down and I was terrified that this was going to be the end.
“That I was going to die. The whole cabin was in shock, there was screaming, all the luggage was falling out.
“There was food everywhere. People’s iPads and tablets were flying around the cabin and hitting people on the heads.
“It was just like you were in a disaster movie. You couldn’t imagine what happened unless you’ve seen a film where a plane was going down.”
He said that the plane eventually levelled out and that the pilot then offered a rather blase apology.
Phillip praised crew for their entirely professional response after the ordeal.
A P&O spokesperson previously said at the time: “A flight from Barbados to Manchester was diverted to Bermuda earlier yesterday morning following freak (unexpected) turbulence.
“Having explored all flying options and due to airport operating times, guests are in hotels today [December 25].
“We are very sorry for this disruption to their journey following their holiday and we are working with the airline and hotels to take care of them and ensure they get home as soon as possible tomorrow.”
Horrifying pictures of the aftermath show debris strewn across the aeroplane as shocked passengers recover from the ordeal.
Pillows, food and drinks litter the floor of the craft after the dramatic shunting.
Oxygen masks are pictured hanging down as the plane went through extreme turbulence.
A woman previously told how the flight erupted into chaos during the turbulence.
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