Passengers on board a Qantas Boeing 737 flight from Melbourne to Canberra this week had a chilling experience they will never forget as they flew through a “pitch black” bushfire cloud.
Passengers reported the view outside going from grey cloudy skies to pitch-black before seeing patches of bright orange sky.
The phenomenon they were experiencing was a pyrocumulus cloud, formed by the raging bushfires fires down below.
While these highly unusual sights would have been frightening for the passengers to see, it ultimately did not affect the safety of the flight.
These photos were taken minutes apart on a Melbourne to Canberra flight. Severe turbulence also pic.twitter.com/BngpxXjsQX
— Matt McIntyre (@McIntyreMack) January 4, 2020
Passenger Matt McIntyre told the ABC of the ominous feeling as the sky “just got greyer and greyer.”
“All of a sudden just pitch black, and that’s when the plane sort of dropped,” he said.
“There was one guy sort of swearing … I heard people down the front vomiting.”
Passenger Hua Tuo took to Facebook to describe the incident as “the scariest flight” he had ever taken.
“It was orange outside of the window then suddenly it was black, and then the turbulence hit… I was jumping off my seat!”
Qantas Passenger Hua Tuo
“We circled Canberra for a while and our captain assured us that we had enough to go back to Melbourne if we can’t land,” he said.
” I was pretty sure at that point that I didn’t want to stay another hour in flight, crazy! We were supposed to land in Canberra around 6, I was very grateful when I got out of the plane at 7.30. Everyone thanked the pilots”.
The scariest flight that I’ve ever taken so far – flying from Melbourne to Canberra today. We got hit by a smoke storm….
Posted by Hua Tuo Studio [华拓工作室] on Saturday, January 4, 2020
Qantas fleet safety captain Debbie Slade said pilots reacted quickly to hitting the unexpected turbulence, ascending to a higher altitude before taking a different approach into Canberra.
The plane was met on the ground by emergency services, but no injuries were sustained by passengers.
The captain greeted the shaken passengers after the landing to make sure they were all OK.