Passengers aboard a Turkish Airlines jet screamed and sobbed as the pilot tried at least three times to land at a Tunisian airport during a storm, then diverted to a runway 55 miles away.
The Airbus A321, bound from Istanbul to Tunis-Carthage Airport in Tunisia on September 10, flew straight into severe weather on its approach. The plane shook violently. One passenger shouted "we will die." A Russian-speaking influencer aboard the flight, sobbing as she recorded the ordeal, later wrote that she had "never in my life have I been so scared for my life."
The pilot attempted to bring the aircraft down at Tunis-Carthage at least three times. Each approach failed. Video footage posted to social media appeared to show the plane lurching and, in the influencer's description, "starting to fall" during the final attempt. Passengers begged the pilot to land somewhere else, anywhere else, rather than try again.
He obliged. The flight rerouted to Enfidha-Hammamet Airport, roughly 55 miles south of Tunis-Carthage, where it touched down safely. Passengers clapped.
The Daily Mail reported the sequence in detail drawn from the influencer's footage and account. The plane encountered the storm on its initial descent into Tunis-Carthage. Turbulence intensified as the pilot lined up for the first approach. The aircraft shook "very strongly," and the attempt was abandoned.
A second approach followed. Same result.
On the third try, the influencer captured video that she described as showing the aircraft beginning to fall. Whether the plane actually lost significant altitude or the sensation was amplified by the storm's violence is unclear, no official account from Turkish Airlines or aviation authorities has surfaced. The Daily Mail contacted Turkish Airlines for comment but reported no response.
By that point, passengers were done. They pleaded with the crew to divert, to another airport, even another country. The pilot chose Enfidha-Hammamet, a secondary Tunisian airport well south of the storm. The landing was uneventful.
No injuries among passengers or crew were reported. The flight number was not disclosed. The total number of people aboard was not stated. And the specific meteorological conditions, wind speed, storm classification, visibility, were not included in any available account.
It is also unclear whether passengers were later transported to Tunis from the diversion airport or whether their journey simply ended at Enfidha-Hammamet.
The influencer's identity was not fully disclosed. She was described only as a Russian-speaking tourist. The platform where she posted the footage was not specified, and the video has not been independently verified by aviation investigators or a third party.
Episodes like this one are becoming less rare. Research published in 2023 by the University of Reading found that severe turbulence increased 55 percent between 1979 and 2020. The study linked the rise to shifts in atmospheric jet-stream patterns.
For passengers, the practical effect is straightforward: flights that once encountered rough air occasionally now hit it more often, and harder. Seatbelt compliance, cockpit weather radar, and pilot decision-making carry more weight than they did a generation ago.
In this case, the pilot's decision to stop trying and divert was the right call, and the cabin full of relieved applause at Enfidha-Hammamet said as much. Turkish Airlines has yet to say anything at all.
When the airline stays silent and the passengers do the talking, the story writes itself, and it rarely flatters the front office.
