Published on : Friday, October 12, 2018
According to flight tracker FlightAware, Cliff Maloney, president of the student organisation Young Americans for Liberty, was on United Flight 2397, which took off from Fort Myers at 12:12 p.m. and made an emergency landing back at the airport about 45 minutes later.
Five or 10 minutes into the flight on the Airbus A320, while the plane was still climbing, he heard a “loud banging noise” right outside the window of seat 2A.
“Everybody kind of did the same thing, kind of sat up,” he said, “We’ve all seen ‘Sully.’ We’re all kind of having that moment.
“And then, all of a sudden, you hear the engine. There’s not enough sound or power.”
He described it as an “eerie” feeling and said he and other passengers becameworried.
“Everything kind of rushes to your head. You’re kind of in this hopeless situation. Nobody knows what to do.”
Maloney said the pilot came on the intercom within a minute or so, though he said it felt like forever.
“He tells us right away, ‘Ladies and gentleman, we’ve had engine failure.’ Words you never want to hear,” Maloney recalled.
The pilot announced an emergency landing and urged the 79 passengers to please listen to the flight attendants. He described the crew as “very calm, cool and collected.”
Tags: United Airlines