VIDEO: Couple’s plane crash terror

Suzanne Wood (43) and her husband 40-year-old Robert had been on a Jet2 passenger flight back from a wedding in Ibiza when the incident happened on Wednesday evening.

She says the Boeing 737 had been running about 20 minutes late but she was surprised when they descended to EMA sooner than expected.

Mrs Wood, an employee volunteer co-ordinator at Nottingham Trent University, says the plane appeared to have an electrical fault, with internal lights failing, and communications systems not working.

According to Mrs Wood, Jet2 cabin crew had to use a megaphone to speak with passengers, although few could hear what was being said.

She says a pilot came out with a torch and it looked as though he was checking whether the landing gear had dropped.

When the plane came in to land, it pulled up again and began to circle but then landed safely, with passengers clapping.

But that’s when the fear struck.

Mrs Wood said: “Everyone was wondering what was going on.

“When we were circling, there were kids screaming and people wondering if we were going to belly-dive on to the runway.

“When we did land, we taxied to the far end where there were emergency vehicles.

“I wondered if we were on fire as there was a burning smell and people could see smoke.

“It was filling with smoke and it was chaos. I thought we were going to die and everyone was in a state of panic.

“People were frantic and screaming at people to open the emergency door but some didn’t know if that was the right thing to do.

“We didn’t see any Jet2 staff. When we got off people were in tears, talking about blame and it was chaos.

“It was as if there had been plans for such an event but no-one quite knew what to do.”

And she added: “It was the worse situation ever I did think I was going to die. The pilots did a good job though in landing the plane. It’s not the sort of thing that happens every day and we haven’t yet heard from Jet2.”

A statement from Jet2 said: “Following a safe arrival yesterday at East Midlands Airport, flight LS644 from Ibiza had to be evacuated once on stand as a precautionary safety measure, due to a minor electrical problem which led to some smoke in the cabin.

“All passengers were looked after by our airport team. A full investigation is now under way.”

East Midlands Airport said a number of flights had to be diverted to Birmingham after the incident.