Flight From Los Angeles Sent Into Nosedive For 10 Seconds After Hitting Vortex: Report

Passengers have described the terrifying moment a vortex sent their Qantas flight into a 10-second “nosedive.”Hundreds of horrified travellers held hands ­believing they were about to die as the aircraft suddenly dropped over the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.

The dramatic ordeal afflicting passengers on the QF94 from Los Angeles to Melbourne is understood to have been caused by the vortex, or “wake turbulence” caused by another aircraft which took off just two minutes earlier.QF94 passenger Janelle Wilson told The Australian the “three-quarters-full” plane suddenly entered a “free fall nosedive … a direct decline towards the ocean” for about 10 seconds.

“It was between 1½ and two hours after we left LA and all of a sudden the plane went through a violent turbulence and then completely up-ended and we were nose­diving,” Wilson told the newspaper yesterday.