I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! star and A Place in the Sun presenter Scarlette Douglas was meant to be on an ill-fated flight which crashed, killing more than 200 people on board
TV star Scarlette Douglas has opened up about her phobia of flying after a chilling near-miss with death in the wake of the Air India tragedy. She was supposed to board a plane that fatally crashed, tragically claiming the lives of more than 200 passengers, including a close friend.
The beloved Channel 4 presenter of A Place in the Sun for seven years admitted her fear of flying intensified following the Air France Flight 447 disaster in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. All 228 people perished in the June 2009 catastrophe – one of whom was Scarlette’s friend.
Scarlette, who also appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2022, was initially meant to be on the doomed Airbus A330. Her friend had even booked their seats, but she was prevented from travelling by work commitments in Hollywood.
Opening up at the Taste of London Food Festival launch bash in Regent’s Park, the 38-year-old North London presenter told the Daily Mail: “I lost a really good friend of mine in the Air France crash from Brazil to France. The scary thing was I was supposed to be on that flight. She had booked it,” reports the Mirror.
As a result, she “hates flying”, which posed a significant challenge during her time presenting A Place in the Sun and its spin-offs until 2022, preceding her stint in the jungle on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
The celebrity was questioned about air travel following the tragic Air India plane crash, which resulted in all but one of the passengers on the Boeing perishing in a horrific accident. The plane, bound for Gatwick Airport, crashed into a medical college in Ahmedabad, western India, claiming the lives of 53 Brits.
While the investigation into the crash is ongoing, an aviation expert has suggested that the co-pilot mistakenly adjusted the plane’s wing flaps instead of retracting the landing gear just after take-off.
However, inconsistent airspeed readings and miscommunication led to the pilots unintentionally stalling the ill-fated Air France plane, which carried Scarlette’s friend in 2009. The pilots were unable to recover the plane from the stall, resulting in the plane plunging into the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
The investigation was hindered as the aircraft’s flight recorders were not retrieved from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years post-accident. The final and definitive report by France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) was eventually published in July 2012.
Most of those onboard the four-year-old Airbus were Brazilian and French citizens. However, five unfortunate Brits also lost their lives in the disaster, including 11-year-old Alexander Bjoroy, oil worker Graham Gardner, and PR executive Neil Warrior.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
