Video: Passengers’ Perspective of Turkish Plane That Slid off Runway

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(Newswire.net — January 15, 2018) — If it is not recorded it is like it never happened. A video of passengers rushing to exit a Turkish plane that overshot the runway and slipped over a cliff revealed that more passengers were recording the event rather than running for their lives.

The Pegasus Airlines passenger jet slid off the runway in the Turkish city of Trabzon on Saturday night and was left hanging just above the Black sea waves splashing the cliff. The footage of the incident shows that the airplane’s starboard engine was missing while the port side one dug into the soil preventing the airplane from sliding further into the sea.

None of the 162 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew were injured in the incident.  Video footage from inside the plane reveals confusion as passengers scrambled in the dark. It also revealed more passengers recording the incident while running for their lives, so we can catch a glimpse of what it was like for them.

A video that emerged on Turkish agency Ihlas Haber Ajansi (IHA) Facebook page shows people who are rushing to get out of the airplane. Agitated voices and the cries of a baby can be heard, but no one was really panicking. Some of the passengers, however, told media that panic was present.

“We tilted on the side, and the front of the plane went down and the back [of the plane] went up. There was a huge panic, people were shouting,” Fatma Gordu told Anadoly news agency as cited by Reuters.

“We thought there would be fire. People panicked – there were pregnant women and children,” Gordu explained the fear that the passengers shared during the incident.

“We thought there would be fire. People panicked – there were pregnant women and children.”

Luckily there was no fire so the passengers were evacuated safely.  

Beside emergency lights inside the passenger’s cabin, the darkness was lit by smartphone displays. The activated camera recording app was clearly visible on some of them.

The old saying “if it’s not written it does not exist” has a new meaning amid technology available in everyday use. The psychological drive behind it is far more complex than just documenting the moment, experts say.

The urge some people have for sharing even the most unexciting moments in life such as eating, walking, basically doing nothing that would prompt interest is still being recorded. Even deadly situations are a must to document, regardless if it endangers the life of the author of the video or lives of others who are involved.

Researchers have discovered that every major action on social networks—liking, posting, sharing, commenting and even lurking, taps directly the brain’s pleasure center. The urge for sharing is highly addictive, and sharing rare and unusual incidents is widely promoted, and in some cases even well financially compensated.