JetBlue pilot tells passengers that their plane is losing power after lightning strike
A plane heading to West Palm Beach, Florida, was struck by lightning on Friday night, and had to make an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey.
The Palm Beach Post reports that passengers on the flight from Boston experienced severe turbulence and feared for their lives when the captain announced that they had lost some power.
One passenger, Mikaela Fernandez, said that she had no idea the plane had been struck by lightning, but was scared when the turbulence started. She told The Palm Beach Post: "The captain then came on calmly but sternly and let us know the aircraft had been struck and that we had lost some power to instruments and we needed to make an emergency landing."
She said: "You could feel and see the panic, but you could not hear it."
Ms Fernandez praised the crew for helping to keep everyone calm, but she was so convinced that they were going to crash that she wrote goodbye letters to her three daughters and husband.
She said: "There was no bone in my body that thought we would survive this and I wanted to make sure my family knew I loved them with all my heart."
CBS reports that the plane landed safely at around 11pm, and none of the 140 passengers were injured.
A JetBlue spokesperson told USA Today the pilot diverted the plane "out of an abundance of caution."
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