British Airways Flight Review: “It Was a Near-Death Experience – Let Me Call It That”

Video footage has emerged of a British Airways flight violently rocking and swerving as it attempted to land in Gibraltar in high winds on Monday morning. The plane, an Airbus A320 from London Heathrow Airport (LHR), was diverted to Malaga’s airport as a precautionary measure, stated the airline.

Video footage has emerged of a British Airways (BA) flight violently rocking and swerving as it attempted to land at Gibraltar International Airport (GIB) in strong winds on Monday, Metro.co.uk reports. The incident involved British Airways Flight 492 from London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR).

In the clip, which has been shared by the outlet, the approaching Airbus A320 can be seen to be veering as it makes its approach to GIB.

Offering his comments on the footage, the unnamed man who captured the incident was quoted by the outlet as saying, “Being where we are we see a lot of the landings, but never one as rough as that. Glad that I wasn’t on it!”

The flight, however, was diverted to Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP), where it landed safely.

Offering their comments on the incident, a spokesperson for BA said, “The flight has landed safely and passengers have left the aircraft normally. Due to strong winds in the Gibraltar area, our pilots decided to land in Malaga as a precaution.”

Passenger Eli Hassett spoke to Sky News with his eyewitness account, saying, “I do this route once a week from London to Gibraltar and the landings into Gibraltar sometimes are a bit windy but today was something completely out of the ordinary. We were tilting from one side of the plane to the other. The wings were tilting, it was a near-death experience – let me call it that.”

“The captain, the pilot, she said to get ready for landing and warned us that it might be a bit bumpy because of the winds. All of a sudden I literally felt like I was on a roller-coaster, tilting from side to side, we had no idea what was going on, people were, to say the least, very, very nervous,” he added.

Despite the nature of the experience, he offered his praise to members of the flight’s cabin crew, who, he said, “behaved fantastically as usual.”

[Source: Wikimedia]