United Pilot Allegedly Panics Passengers With ‘Tornado’ Announcement

NEWARK, NJ — If your pilot announced that your plane was about to fly towards a tornado, would you thank them for their candor or start panicking? Many passengers aboard a Newark-bound United Airlines flight on Tuesday went with the latter option, a report says.

The flight from Chicago was originally slated to land in Newark at 9:20 p.m., but had already been delayed two hours due to heavy rain across the east coast.

And then came a surprising announcement from the pilot: things were about to get turbulent.

"He seemed angry," Princeton resident Pamela Kent told NJ.com. "He said 'we're going to be flying through horrific storms including tornadoes.'"

Kent said the pilot added that they should “get to know their neighbors” and that the flight would be “very turbulent.”

Read the full article here.

After the pilot’s announcement, airline attendants reportedly tried to reassure passengers that he didn’t mean the flight was unsafe.

But when the pilot got back on the intercom with a message that the plane was having “maintenance issues” and had to return to the gate – just as the plane finally started to depart - that’s when dozens of people asked to get off. Several fed up passengers chose to find alternative arrangements to get to their destinations, NJ.com reported.

A Boeing 737 eventually landed in Newark at 3:58 a.m. United is reportedly investigating the incident.

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