FORT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - A flight that took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport took a terrifying turn that left passengers and crew members shaken. Now one passenger is sharing her account of the scare in the air.
Speaking with 7News on Wednesday, passenger Jerrica Thacker described the heart-stopping moments that unfolded inside the cabin of the Allegiant Air flight on Sunday.
“I’m sitting there, like, grabbing the two handrails beside me, because I’m shaking already, terrified,” she said.
Thacker, 21, said the aircraft had to make jarring move to avoid a possible midair collision. This trip marked her first time traveling by plane.
“My first flight was my way to Fort Lauderdale, so this was my second flight, going back home,” she said.
Thacker, who lives in Kentucky, had flown to South Florida with her family to take a cruise.
After a great vacation, Thacker said, the family was heading home on the Allegiant flight, which took off just before 1 p.m.
Twenty minutes after takeoff, Thacker said, something happened.
“Out of nowhere, it felt like I went down, because I was toward the back of the plane,” she said. “We didn’t find out until later that we actually went up instead of down.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, “An air traffic controller in the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center had instructed flight 485 to turn eastbound at an altitude of 23,000 feet when it crossed in front of a northbound Gulfstream business jet.”
Flight radar shows that sharp turn east.
FAA officials said the pilot received an alert in the cockpit warning of the Gulfstream jet heading straight for them.
The pilot had to fly higher, and quickly.
“The pilot came back on the intercom, and he’s like, ‘Unfortunately, we have headed back to Fort Lauderdale, we have turned around. I had to make an abrupt maneuver to avoid another aircraft,'” said Thacker.
The maneuver caused two flight attendants to fall down. The flight was heading back because one of them was injured.
“They both fell right beside us, and the one who got injured, she hit her head on the handrail, I guess,” said Thacker.
The airline rescheduled the flight, but Thacker said she and her family were too upset to fly again, so they drove home to Kentucky. The drive took over 14 hours.
“We were all sitting there, like, ‘We’re not getting back on a place,'” said Thacker. “I literally said, ‘I don’t care if all three of you get back on, I will drive myself home,’ ’cause I was not getting back on a plane.”
Thacker said the airline has offered the family a voucher, but she doubts she will be putting it to use.
“I told my parents, ‘It’s going to go to waste, because I’m not getting back on,'” she said. “If they want it, they can have it, but I don’t think I’ll ever be back on a plane.”
It remains unclear what led the air traffic controller to order the pilot of the Allegiant plane to make that turn toward the east. The FAA said the incident is under investigation.
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