Skywest Airlines said it was investigating what caused three passengers to pass out on a flight that made an emergency landing in Buffalo on Wednesday — after initially reporting the pilot “acted out of an abundance of caution” when only one passenger got sick.
The Chicago-to-Connecticut flight dove 20,000 feet within minutes after the first passenger fainted, NBC News reported.
The crew feared a cabin door swung open at 37,000 feet and caused pressure problems, passengers said.
CAPTAIN ANDY: PASSENGERS MAY HAVE PASSED OUT DUE TO FEAR
Airline representatives said there was no loss of pressure after examining the aircraft.
But the pilot did not know that and quickly maneuvered the plane with 75 passengers to where the air would be breathable — 10,000 feet — reps said.
The plane dropped a dizzying 7,000 feet per minute, FlightAware reported.
Officials are not yet sure what caused the terrifying descent and did not say whether the last two passengers became ill before or during the plunge.
“When we don’t know exactly what may have led the passenger to lose consciousness, we want to rule out as many factors as possible,” SkyWest spokesman Wes Horrocks told the Los Angeles Times.
Mary Cunningham, a passenger and registered nurse, said she helped another passenger who passed out and had “awful” coloring.
“I went back to my seat after she was feeling better, and all of a sudden, the woman sitting behind her passed out unresponsive,” she told NBC Connecticut.
Cunningham said she was soon affected, too.
“I felt very nervous. I realized something was very wrong, and it was really scary,” said Cunningham. “That was terrifying.”
The plane went into a “nosedive” and the “airplane was shaking,” passenger Frank Angelo said.
Even one of the flight attendants appeared to panic, passengers said.
“There was a lot of people with their heads down, praying,” passenger Larry Johnson, of Fort Myers, Fla., told the Connecticut station.
Dave Barkley, of Detroit, said he did not see a door swing open but that the plane “dove down, just above the clouds.”
“The way SkyWest is reporting it is that someone got sick, and they had to land,” he told The Times. “But the way we understand it, they got sick because of the lack of oxygen or lack of pressure in the plane.”
On the Buffalo runway, emergency responders rushed to the plane in hazmat suits and with law enforcement dogs, witnesses said.
Passengers were evaluated and received oxygen at the airport, officials said. No one was hospitalized.
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