'Hell of a scare': Matthew McConaughey opens up about 'scary' flight
Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey has opened up about the "hell of a scare" he and his wife Camila Alves McConaughey experienced on a Lufthansa flight last month.
The couple were flying from Austin, Texas, to Frankfurt, Germany when the aircraft suddenly experienced unexpected severe turbulence that injured seven people.
"It's suspended disbelief. I mean, it's zero gravity," McConaughey said on SiriusXM's Let's Talk Off Camera podcast with Kelly Ripa about the moment the plane dropped 4,000 feet (1,200 metres).
READ MORE: Here's the real reason to turn on airplane mode when you fly
Matthew McConaughey has spoken about the 'scary' flight he and his wife were on. Getty
"Your red wine and the glass and the plates that your food was on are all suspended, floating, still just in the air. And to look at it for that long, which wasn't that long – one, two, three, four [seconds] – and then everything just comes crashing down."
The Oscar-winner said the tray table ended up being the only thing holding him in his seat.
"I did not have my seatbelt on, and there was not a seatbelt warning right before it happened," he said, adding he was quickly concerned for his wife.
"[We] held hands just saying, 'OK, is that it? Is there another one coming?' Another one did come," he added.
"It was odd. You hear people's reactions. Some people were ghost silent. Some people had big bursts of laughter. And it was not like, 'Oh, this is fun.' It was like, 'I'm in shock.'"
Thee flight on March 1 was travelling from Texas to Frankfurt, Germany. iStock
When the incident on the flight on March 1 first occurred, Camila shared footage of the immediate aftermath on Instagram.
"I was told [the] plane dropped almost 4,000 feet. Everything was flying everywhere... the plane was CHAOS – and the turbulence [kept] on coming," she captioned the clip showing food and napkins strewn all over the floor.
The flight was diverted to a Washington, DC, area airport, and seven people needed to be taken to hospital.
Turbulence occurs when there is some sort of change in the air around the plane. But as many airline experts will stress, planes are built to withstand serious turbulence and that turbulence itself is not dangerous.
Though this is a prime example of why passengers are reminded to keep their seatbelt on whenever they are in their seat. Even if the seatbelt sign is not on.
