Travelers aboard a Delta Airlines flight to New York City were left fearing for their lives after the plane was suddenly plunged into darkness and forced to make an emergency landing.
More than 200 passengers bound for Manhattan’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) were rerouted to Iceland following the unexpected technical issue.
Delta Flight DL45 was forced to divert barely two hours into the journey from Ireland’s Dublin Airport on Tuesday.
Panic swept through the cabin as the lights cut out and the plane jolted violently, prompting some travelers to burst into tears according to those on board.
Passenger Lohanny Santos said that they were instructed to grab life vests after the left engine reportedly failed miles above the Atlantic Ocean.
‘I kid you not, I thought we were going to die,’ content creator and passenger Lohanny Santos said in a TikTok video she shared on Wednesday.
Against all odds, the plane diverted north to Iceland and made a safe emergency landing at Keflavík International Airport (KEF) just before 8:45pm local time.
‘This was the most insane thing ever,’ Santos added in a second video. ‘Everyone on this flight has become family and we all trauma bonded.’
Travelers aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Dublin Airport (DUB) to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) were left fearing for their lives after technical difficulties sent the plane into a sudden blackout (stock photo)
Content creator and passenger Lohanny Santos recalled the screens going dark, the plane lurching in the air and a voice shouting for passengers to grab life vests
The plane diverted north to Iceland and made a safe emergency landing at Keflavík International Airport (KEF) just before 8:45pm local time (Pictured: Flight tracking data)
‘I will be making the most of it while here in Iceland, but wow. That was intense.’
The Boeing 767-300 took off from Dublin on Tuesday, carrying travelers on what should have been a standard seven-and-a-half-hour flight across the ocean to the Big Apple.
Everything seemed normal Santos said until the screens went dark and the plane lurched in the air before passengers were told to grab life vests.
‘All of the sudden, the left engine went out and then the screens went dark and everyone was so confused,’ she said in her video.
‘We didn’t hear anything from the pilot for awhile,’ she added. ‘The girl next to me started crying.’
The pilot eventually announced that the plane was being diverted to southwest Iceland due to technical difficulties, with the country’s Civil Protection Department and emergency services on standby as a precaution.
Yet the captain’s announcement did little to soothe the cabin, and passengers, including Santos, clung to complete strangers for comfort.
In a follow-up video, Santos ‘thanked God’ for the man sitting next to her, who let her hold his hand and cling to his arm the entire time as she ‘shook’ in terror
Santos swung the camera toward the man sitting next to her to reveal it was Ireland’s famous TV and radio personality, Martin King (pictured on right)
In a follow-up video, the content creator ‘thanked God’ for the man sitting next to her, who let her hold his hand and cling to his arm the entire time as she ‘shook’ in terror.
She then swung the camera toward the man sitting next to her who was Ireland’s famous TV and radio personality, Martin King.
‘He helped me through it, guys,’ she said, as he gently squeezed her arm and chuckled, insisting it was no problem.
Santos also thanked other fellow passengers: ‘Shout out to the girl beside me for her breathing exercises, and the woman behind me for the Ring Pop.’
The plane finally hit solid ground in one piece, and visibly shaken passengers were told they’d be spending the night in an Icelandic hotel before resuming their journey to New York the following day.
‘When we landed, everyone started clapping and were all just relieved,’ Santos shared.
For Santos and the hundreds of strangers aboard, the terrifying ordeal forged a bond. They stuck together even after landing, leaning on each other for comfort in a foreign country.
Santos captured another moment in a video while out at a bar, toasting shots with two women she had bonded with during the flight.
The next day, the passengers returned to the skies and landed safely in New York City shortly after 9pm (stock photo)
‘We are so happy to be alive,’ she captioned the post. ‘Life has a funny way to bring friends into your life, huh.’
The passengers returned to the skies the next day and landed safely in New York City shortly after 9pm, according to flight data.
Delta Airlines did not immediately respond to Daily Mail’s request for comment.
