Delta Plane Plunges 30,000 Feet As Terrified Passengers Grab For Oxygen Masks

Last Updated 5 years ago

A Delta plane traveling from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale had to make an emergency landing after plunging nearly 30,000 feet in less than seven minutes, sparking panic among passengers.

"We all sort of thought this is how it’s going to end."

Passenger Brandon Tomlinson told Buzzfeed

The flight experienced a “cabin pressurization irregularity” during the journey, the airline said in a statement. In multiple posts to twitter, oxygen masks can be seen deployed throughout the cabin of the plane.

“As a precautionary measure, the crew elected to rapidly descend from 39,000 to 10,000 feet Delta spokesperson Anthony Black told BuzzFeed.

“The goal was to basically get to an altitude where people don't have to wear masks on the aircraft, and it also reduces the issue of depressurization,” Black added.

“One of the flight attendants repeatedly told passengers over the intercom not to panic passenger Harris Dewoskin told CNN. “Obviously it's a hectic moment so the passengers around me, a lot of people were kind of hyperventilating, breathing really hard,” Dewoskin said.

BREAKING | Scary moments for passengers on board a @Delta flight bound for @FLLFlyer. It diverted to @FlyTPA because of an issue with the cabin pressure. @abcactionnews

📸 Harris DeWoskin pic.twitter.com/9dKFsvyzxM
— Griffin Frank (@GriffinFrank) September 18, 2019

"Life is fragile like. There was a scary 60 to 90 seconds where we really didn't know what was going on. At 15,000 feet in the air, it's a scary moment for sure."

Passenger Harris Dewoskin

"All of a sudden the oxygen masks dropped out and you started hearing this real howling sound, which I think was the engine because the pilot was diving to get below," he said. "It was like a roller coaster as we were going down. And you can see in the actual flight attendants’ eyes that this was real, this wasn’t something to mess around with."

Passenger Brandon Tomlinson

@Delta so this hasn’t happened before but your #2353 flight crew from ATL to FLL (now Tampa) was awesome@keeping people calm. Now I know the bag doesn’t really inflate… pic.twitter.com/B2FfWKAewE
— Tiffany O. Sawyer (@OsteenSawyer) September 18, 2019

Delta Air Lines Flight 2353 was diverted to Tampa where it landed safely without incident.

Delta Air Lines said it apologized to everyone on that plane and said the plane diverted to Tampa “out of an abundance of caution.”

Cover Photo: Harris DeWoskin

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