Panic as Jet2 holiday plane makes emergency landing after losing cabin pressure
A Jet2 flight from Cyprus to Newcastle was forced to make an emergency landing in Bulgaria on Wednesday night after losing cabin pressure.
Flight LS516 made a rapid descent dropping thousands of feet in minutes, before landing at Sofia airport where it was met by local emergency services.
British holidaymakers reportedly thought the plane was crash-landing as oxygen masks were deployed an hour after take-off.
One passenger, Vicki Standing, was travelling home from a two-week holiday in Paphos. Speaking to the Daily Mail, she said: "It was really scary, I was shaking and I felt sick.
"I said to my my oldest son "there is something wrong here". My ears were popping and we were losing altitude.
"Then the seat belt signs came on, but there was no turbulence. The next thing I remember is hearing the word emergency and that made me panic.
"I thought we were crash landing. Everyone's mask deployed apart from mine. I clawed at it until it came down.
"After five minutes were up, we must have reached 10,000 feet. It is like something you see in movies, I didn't think it would happen to us.
"It kind of spoiled my holiday a little bit, but it gave us something to talk about."
The BBC reports that passengers arrived in Newcastle on a replacement aircraft at around 4.15am on Thursday, having been due to arrive at 20.25 on Wednesday.
According to ITV News, a Jet2 spokesman said: "Flight LS516 from Paphos to Newcastle diverted to Sofia Airport yesterday afternoon as a precautionary measure due to a technical issue.
"The aircraft landed safely and passengers returned to Newcastle on a replacement aircraft early this morning.
"We would like to apologise to passengers for any inconvenience this may have caused."
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