Local recounts ‘terrifying’ flight which saw people lifted from their seats

Glen Orritt and his girlfriend, Nicolene Schlimmer, were on board the flight, which encountered turbulence at about 12.15pm.

Orritt said most of the Kulula flight was pleasant.

When the aircraft was about 15 minutes from landing, the paramedic said there was severe turbulence.

“We hit cloud, came through cloud and the wings started shaking,” he said.

“I was going to take a video, but there was no time because the turbulence was then already quite bad.

“The next minute, it just went mad.

“… I was sitting on the emergency aisle over the wing – there was a guy on my left who was airborne out of his seat. There were a few people airborne out of their seats; there were people screaming.”

Orritt said the shaking lasted for about five minutes.

“At one point the air hostess came on the loudspeaker and said, ‘Stay in your seats – we are going to land shortly’.

“After that we landed, people cheered and applauded and stopped screaming – and we landed safely in Cape Town,” he said.

“It was out-of-your-seat, hair-raising stuff.”

He said he did, at one stage, feel like he was going to die.

Public relations company Meropa issued a statement on Kulula’s behalf.

“A passenger aboard a kulula.com flight to Cape Town International Airport [on June 7] was hurt when the aircraft encountered severe turbulence during the descent after the fasten-seatbelt instruction had been given,” said Stephen Forbes, of Meropa.

“The incident occurred in clear weather about 20 minutes out of Cape Town.

“Our highly trained crew assisted the passenger.

“The safety of our customers and crew is always our foremost priority.”

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