By David Averre
3:02 PM June 13, 2024, updated 4:12 PM June 13, 2024
Passengers on a Boeing 737-800 flight bound for Manchester experienced sheer panic when the pilot was forced to abort takeoff just as the plane took off from the tarmac at an airport in Turkey earlier this week.
The shocking incident took place on TUI flight TOM213, whose passengers had already suffered a four-hour delay at Turkey’s Dalaman airport as safety crews inspected the plane after an engine failure.
Their ordeal became even worse when take-off finally arrived, as the plane briefly lifted off the runway before diving back down and sliding across the tarmac at high speed.
Horror footage from inside the cabin showed customers screaming in fear moments after the impact, which threw many passengers forward, slamming their faces into the front seats.
The worrying incident represents the latest misfortune for the embattled US aerospace company, whose planes have suffered a litany of problems in recent months.
One passenger recounted the horrific experience to The Sun, saying: ‘I thought we had crashed into another plane. As we skidded, a flight attendant sat on her knees and said, “I have three kids!”
‘Babies were crying and mothers couldn’t even soothe them. We all thought we were going to die.”
The pilot aborted the takeoff at 185 miles per hour, the passengers recalled, causing the plane to suffer a sickening thud before skidding down the runway for about 10 seconds before finally coming to a stop.
Passengers were heard shouting ‘Get me off!’ but were forced to remain trapped in the cabin for another 30 minutes as emergency services and firefighters surrounded the stricken aircraft.
In the aftermath, the pilot spoke to the traumatized passengers over the loudspeaker.
‘We had another problem with the plane. It seems quite dramatic – I know it’s disturbing.”
But the announcement did little to put passengers at ease, as many already suspected the plane was not in a safe condition after teams spent four hours correcting an engine failure earlier that day.
One passenger expressed frustration with the pilot’s explanation, stating, “The plane was never safe to fly. “I’m glad the pilot abandoned the landing because God knows what would have happened otherwise.”
Reports later indicated that the same plane had been diverted from Lisbon two days earlier due to technical problems, with some passengers claiming they could smell burning fuel from the rear of the plane.
TUI representatives asked the travelers to stay in Turkey for three more days and rebooked them on the same plane, but many refused to travel on the affected plane and were instead forced to arrange proper accommodation.
One passenger spent £300 on an alternative flight with Spirit Airlines, vowing never to fly with TUI again. They are all waiting for information on how to get compensation for the delays and additional costs, not to mention the traumatic experience they have gone through.
A spokesperson for TUI UK and Ireland said in a statement: ‘We are sorry to hear of customer experiences following the delayed departure of flight TOM213 from Dalaman to Manchester.
‘Although we always strive to get our customers to and from their holidays as safely and smoothly as possible, a technical problem has unfortunately delayed the flight departure this time.
“All customers will automatically receive compensation for flight delays, and we will use the lessons learned from this incident to improve communications with our customers in the future.”
MailOnline has contacted Boeing for comment.
Boeing planes have suffered a series of problems recently, with the aerospace company coming under fire after whistleblowers claimed quality control procedures were breached and many planes left factories with defects.
The manufacturer is also under investigation in the U.S. for allegedly violating the terms of a 2021 agreement in which the company avoided charges related to the crashes of two 737 MAX planes that killed hundreds.
Meanwhile, the incident where the nose of the TUI plane crashed into the runway in Turkey on Monday was eerily reminiscent of several accidents that occurred in just two days last month.
The tire of a Boeing plane burst today while landing in Turkey, the third passenger jet built by the manufacturing giant to suffer a technical problem or crash within just two days.
A total of 190 people were evacuated from a 737-800 plane operated by Turkey-based Corendon Airlines when the plane crashed on the runway and skidded after its front landing gear collapsed upon landing on May 9.
Although none of the 184 passengers and six crew on the flight from Cologne were injured, that dramatic landing followed another accident at another Turkish airport a day earlier.
In that accident, a FedEx Boeing 767 cargo plane made an emergency landing in Istanbul after its front landing gear failed.
Dramatic video showed the plane’s nose scraping the tarmac as smoke and sparks poured from the fuselage and engines.
Between the two incidents, terrified passengers were forced to flee from a burning Boeing 737-300 plane with 78 passengers on board, which skidded off the runway and burst into flames during takeoff in Senegal.
There is no evidence that Boeing is responsible for the crashes.
Boeing has also been accused of abandoning safety as it obsesses over “woke” workforce diversity targets and paying too many executives who work from home.
Current CEO Dave Calhoun announced in March that he would step down at the end of this year as a result of a management overhaul, with share prices plummeting.
And passengers would deliberately change flights to avoid Boeing’s fleet or traveling with anxiety medication.
During the emergency landing in Senegal, the plane suffered serious damage when it flew off the tarmac into the bush at Blaise Diagne airport near the capital Dakar due to a failed take-off attempt.
A video captured by a shocked traveler showed a female customer fleeing the scene of the wreck as flames poured from the 737’s left engine and lit up the night sky.
Emergency services rushed to evacuate the passengers, eleven of whom were injured, four of them seriously.
In the case of the FedEx plane, the flight had taken off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris early on May 8 and was headed to Istanbul when the pilot realized that the landing gear was malfunctioning.
Disturbing footage showed the moment the plane tried to make an emergency landing, landing on the runway and scraping its nose on the concrete.
Sparks flew from the plane’s ruptured fuselage as it crunched across the tarmac, billowing smoke from behind.
Fortunately, firefighters and rescue teams were already waiting at the scene, with the Turkish Ministry of Transport having sent emergency teams as soon as it learned that the pilot’s landing gear had failed.
First responders flocked to surround the plane as it came to a stop and immediately doused it with firefighting foam to prevent a possible fire.
No one was injured in the incident and the crew was able to evacuate the plane safely, said Abdulkadir Uraloglu, Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure.