By July 31, 2015 / 17:26 HKT
When you are helpless in a scary, potentially life-threatening situation in the 21st century, perhaps all there is left to do is to take a selfie video of the whole incident.
That's exactly what one man did on flight CX884 from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, which was forced to make an emergency landing on a remote Alaskan island after a cooling fan failed underneath the cabin, causing smoke to be emitted.
In the four-and-a-half-minute video narrated by a scared-looking but calm British man, we can hear flight attendants instructing passengers to take off their shoes, then to put on their life jackets. Hello worst nightmare!
The passengers seemed generally calm, though flight attendants (understandably) appeared to be on edge and some could be seen running.
“We’re starting to descend,” said the man, who is currently travelling around the world (with an unexpected stop in Alaska).
“We’re going from Hong Kong to LA so I don’t know what landing there is, so…”
(They landed at a military airport in a remote part of the Aleutian Islands between the US and Russia.)
Then a flight attendant instructs the cabin in the proper bracing technique in multiple languages.
Later, there’s a PA announcement saying that the plane won’t be conducting a water landing, and that it would be a normal landing.
The man gives the camera a thumb’s up and a smile in response to the good news.
“So that’s really good news, guys […] We still don’t know why, but it doesn’t really matter as long as we’re going to be landing okay.
“And we’re really dropping, you can feel the pressure,” he said, as he grimaced and gestured towards his ears.
“You can actually see we’re actually jettisoning fuel,” he narrated as he pointed the camera towards the wing, invisible in the night.
The video then cuts to the successful landing, as people are clapping with joy.
“We’ve landed! Yes!” he exclaims.
Phew! This guy's got a shining TV career ahead of him. Would be a shame to have seen that cut short.
Stories shared in 20 pictures at @PechaKucha #HongKonghttp://hongkong.coconuts.co/2015/07/31/man-films-cathay-pacific-flights-entire-emergency-landing-video
