Hollywood actress Geraldine Hughes has told of her terrifying ordeal being involved in an emergency landing at Shannon airport yesterday.
The United Airlines flight from Belfast to New York had to declare an emergency on board shortly after take off, because of a problem with the landing gear.
Belfast native Geraldine, who starred in Hollywood blockbusters such as Gran Torino and Rocky Balboa, was on the flight and explained that she had even written a farewell note to her partner for fear of the worst. Passengers were also told to keep their passports in their pockets, for ID purposes.
Speaking to the Irish Sun she said, “It was awful. It is amazing what this sort of situation does, because we knew for two hours that maybe the landing gear wasn’t going to work and we kept hearing this noise.
“At a certain point I got through to texting, when we were at a lower altitude, and when my other half texted me, I lost it – I started to cry. The possibility was that we may not make it.
“I wrote him a goodbye note. I composed a goodbye note on the notes section of my iPhone.
“At one point they said make sure your passports are in your pocket and we were thinking is that for ID purposes.
“You don’t actually realise until you are off the plane and then you think that could have been really bad,” she said.
Thankfully the plane landing safely at Shannon airport and all onboard got off safely.