Passengers on a Delta flight were a tangled ball of emotions when their plane slid off a taxiway close to a ravine just before takeoff.
The flight was leaving Pittsburgh International Airport to Atlanta.
At first, everyone went into a panic, not sure what was happening, and they were calm once the plane skid to a halt.
Delta 717 suffers taxiway excursion while departing Pittsburgh Airport, Pennsylvania. No injuries reported. https://t.co/tyZOucwqgI pic.twitter.com/Oo9Zu5zXU3
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@breakingavnews) February 11, 2021
According to news reports, Delta flight 2231 was taxiing around 6:30pm when the Boeing 717 plane "exited the taxiway paved surface."
When passengers exited hours later, they saw the aftermath of the incident. The plane was tipped down a hillside close to a ravine.
Pictures and videos of the incident have since gone viral.
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@breakingavnews) February 11, 2021
One of the passengers Chris Holoman told pittsburgh.cbslocal.com that they heard a loud crash, which made everyone freak out. He said the pilot informed passengers to keep their seatbelts on via the speaker.
“He goes, we are just off the runway a little bit. I went on Google Earth and saw we weren’t off a little bit. We were off a ton. It took a while for us because we had to de-ice. It seemed to be like we were lost and we didn’t know where we were going,” he told the website.
He said people were crying.
Another passenger LaRhonda Gray told 11Alive that she didn't know what happened.
"I was kind of falling asleep as we were taxiing to the runway but it just felt like I thought we hit a snow mound or something like that. Come to find out it was a little bit more than what I thought. I didn't know the extent until after I got off the plane and saw the plane pretty much tipped into the ravine," she said.
The incident is being investigated.