‘I thought we were going to die’: Terrified EasyJet passengers describe ‘violent shaking’ that ‘threw crew members against the cabin ceiling, leaving one with a broken leg’ as flight from Corfu to London hit turbulence

British passengers on an EasyJet flight from Corfu to London that was hit by severe turbulence on Monday described their terror as the plane suddenly plunged into the ground, seriously injuring two crew members.

The British airline’s Airbus A320, flight EZY8120, departed Corfu airport in Greece at 12:44 local time on Monday and was en route to London Gatwick with 181 passengers and crew on board.

But just 20 minutes into the flight, the easyJet plane hit turbulence while travelling at 780km/h at an altitude of 8,500m, throwing two cabin crew members who were serving food into the ceiling.

According to witnesses on board, one suffered a badly sprained ankle and the other broke her leg, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

Passenger Sharleigh told MailOnline: ‘I honestly thought we were going to die and I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.

“The pilot said we might experience ‘light turbulence’… then the plane started shaking violently and suddenly dropped. Everyone was screaming – my girlfriend woke up from her sleep and we were holding each other thinking we were going to die,” she said.

Another passenger, Melanie, described the experience as “free falling on a roller coaster.”

‘Literally out of nowhere the plane crashed and then must have come back up. I felt myself coming up and going back down.

‘I just went into a sort of brace position and just screamed… The whole plane was screaming – my niece was in front of me and she was crying her eyes out. It was just completely shocking.

‘I don’t get nervous easily when flying, but the whole way after that I was incredibly nervous. I held on to the seat in front of me with all my might.’

Passengers and injured crew were met by EasyJet crew, airport staff and paramedics, who provided immediate assistance upon landing in Rome.

“Both crew members hit the galley ceiling,” a flight attendant said.

‘One had a badly sprained ankle, the other a broken shin.’

Another passenger, Jodi, told MailOnline: ‘I was sitting in the middle of the plane and it suddenly felt like we had crashed into a wall… The plane then dropped again and rocked from side to side. Then people started screaming, shouting and crying and the lights in the cabin were going on and off.

‘One of the most disturbing things was that the captain did not put anything on the loudspeakers to reassure us, so all the passengers were extremely afraid that it would happen again.

‘Two crew members at the end of the plane were not wearing their seat belts and were injured. We could see one of the crew members lying on the floor at the back of the plane.

‘The other staff blocked our view of the staff member on the ground as the paramedics tried to move her onto a stretcher, but we could hear her screaming and yelling in pain.’

Melanie added: ‘Everyone seemed to be OK but then the public address system went out asking if there were any medical personnel on board and it became clear that the cabin crew had injured themselves… We could hear them groaning, it was horrible to hear.’

The injured flight attendants were immediately treated by paramedics while a replacement crew and aircraft were arranged so that passengers could continue their flight to London Gatwick on Monday evening, approximately seven hours later.

The aircraft involved in the incident remained parked in Rome for security checks the day after the incident.

Passengers praised easyJet’s cabin crew and airport staff, who they said had handled the incident “exceptionally”.

‘EasyJet handled this very well. We diverted to Rome, paramedics came on board and took the two crew members to hospital,’ said one passenger.

‘We were then taken to the terminal while they flew another crew home. The new crew were very reassuring and the captain himself spoke to us in the cabin, and we were kept informed on the return flight which left at around 8.15pm that evening.

“The new pilot and crew were exceptionally good at keeping us informed and reassured.”

An easyJet spokeswoman confirmed the incident in a statement to MailOnline.

Flight EZY8120 from Corfu to London Gatwick encountered turbulence on 19 August, unfortunately resulting in two cabin crew members being injured.

‘The captain therefore decided to divert to Rome, where the crew members were met by the medical service.

‘The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and our pilots are trained to deal with turbulence.

‘The flight landed normally in Rome, where customers were assisted in the terminal and a replacement crew and aircraft were arranged to continue the flight to London Gatwick.’

Meanwhile, Italy’s aviation authority ANSV announced that it had opened an investigation into the incident to determine whether the turbulence was a sudden and unforeseen event (also known as “clear air turbulence”) or whether it was visible on the plane’s weather radar but underestimated by the pilots.

“Given the type and severity of the reported injuries, we have initiated a safety investigation and classified the incident as an ‘accident,’” the ANSV said in a press release.

The agency added that investigators also need to determine why the pilots chose to divert to Rome instead of the nearest airports of Bari or Brindisi.

The shocking incident came as southern Italy was battered by bad weather and occurred just hours after the Bayesian superyacht capsized and sank off the coast of Sicily after being crushed by a deadly waterspout.

The £30million vessel sank minutes after being hit by a freak waterspout while anchored off Porticello in Sicily just before 5am on Monday.

Fifteen people were rescued after the disaster, but six people are still missing, including billionaire Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and a Morgan Stanley executive.

The search for the missing persons entered its third day this morning, with divers still trying to reach the huts in the hope of finding them.

According to an engineer, the missing passengers could still be alive in air pockets 50 meters below the surface. This means that divers, who can only stay underwater for ten minutes per dive due to the depth of the wreck, are in a race against time.

Their work was complicated by the difficulty of getting on board. Divers had to force their way through a 3cm thick porthole to gain access to a section and other parts of the wreck that were blocked by furniture.

The official investigation into the tragedy, launched by prosecutors in nearby Termini Imerese, will initially focus on whether the yacht’s crew closed the access hatches to the ship before the storm hit, according to an expert on the ground.

Investigators will look into whether appropriate measures were taken given the forecast for bad weather overnight, and whether any of the crew members are criminally liable.