A British family’s vacation nearly ended in a nightmare when one of their plane’s engines stopped working as they flew over open water. The jet dropped 500-feet-per-minute but was able to make an emergency landing — at a remote military base guarded by armed soldiers.

A flight on a Dreamliner jet became a British family’s nightmare.

Gary and Caroline Barton were on a Thomson Airways flight with their daughter when one of its engines failed over the Atlantic Ocean — forcing an emergency landing onto a military base protected by machine-gun toting soldiers.

The flight from the Dominican Republic to Manchester, England, became a travel terror three hours into the trip when the pilot announced one of the engines had shut down due to a technical malfunction.

But over open water, the Boeing Dreamliner had to keep flying in search for ground to land on.

“They call it the Dreamliner but it was more like a nightmare,” Gary Barton told the Manchester Evening News.

The jet kept coasting, but started dropping 500 feet a minute, Caroline Barton said.

“The captain said he had to fly lower because he only had one engine. It looked like we were just dropping into the Atlantic,” she said.

Four hours later, the flight reached Azores, a Portuguese island in the middle of the Atlantic, and prepared for an emergency landing.

It wasn’t a pleasant arrival.

“It was a really frightening landing,” Caroline Barton said. “Because it was dark it seemed so scary, all those flashing lights, it made everything look worse.”

She added: “It was extremely tense on that plane. Our daughter was crying, shaking. She was saying ‘What if we don’t make it?’”

Things didn’t get better on the ground.

The plane landed at a military base staffed with heavily armed guards. All 228 passengers spent an excruciating five hours on board the plane.

When the passengers grew even more anxious, the base’s commander finally let them off the jet. They were steered to a rest house on the base, but the soldiers with machine guns blocked the exits, ensuring no one could roam.

The passengers waited for two more hours before another plane came to pick them up.

On board the new jet, they were given bottled water and sausage rolls but had to wait another hour before they were airborne.

Four hours later — after 11 hours of delays — the Bartons and the rest of the passengers were finally back in England.

The captain of the plane never offered an explanation for the travel woes.

The Bartons said they’ve learned a lesson.

“We will not be flying on that plane again,” Caroline Barton said.

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Other News:

Passengers aboard Thomson Airways flight TOM157 experienced unspeakable terror when the aircraft suddenly plummeted at a speed of 500ft per minute over the Atlantic Ocean when one of its engines shut down mid-flight due to technical issues, reports the Daily Mirror.

It was carrying 288 people, and was destined to Manchester (UK) from the Dominican Republic. The quick-thinking pilots were able to make an emergency landing at The Azores, which was luckily just along its path, although still hundreds of miles away from the point where it started to plummet.

Many detailed their scary experience, saying they were screaming as the plane began its swift descent. The lights were also flashing inside the plane, adding to their fears, but the crew assured them it was just a precautionary measure. Many of the passengers also feared for their lives, thinking the airplane would crash into the ocean.

Only a military base was available for the plane to land on, making the passengers nervous while they waited for a replacement aircraft. When they finally reached the military air base, they were not allowed to leave the jet for 5 hours as it sat on the runway and was inspected by aviation officials.

They were later allowed to disembark, with many expressing fear because there were armed guards holding machine guns at all exits, said Gary Barton, 48, one of the passengers. Then, when they boarded the replacement plane, they had to wait another hour before the aircraft finally took off.

Fire breaks out inside United Airlines flight

Also this week, a United Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing when fire broke in the galley on Tuesday night, reported The Aviation Herald. It was flying from Newark (US) to Brussels (Belgium), carrying 233 passengers on board. Flight 999 made an emergency landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Canada.

The crew extinguished the fire, but the pilot wanted to make sure everyone was safe, choosing to land the aircraft at the nearest airport than risk a major disaster.

A number of people were irked by the pilot’s decision, saying the pilot should have followed through its original flight plan; however, there are those who were in favor of his choice, remembering the ill-fated Swissair flight 111. The Swissair plane caught fire midair; however, it was not recognized as an emergency, but simply as an “urgent problem”. The plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean minutes later; there were no survivors.

Bomb threat on Qatar Airways

Also on Tuesday, a bomb threat led to Qatar Airways Flight QR23 being escorted by RAF (Royal Air Force) jets until it reached Manchester Airport. It did not make an emergency landing, but the passengers were terrified upon hearing the man talking to the crew about a bomb threat; then later saw the jets escorting them.

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ACTIVITY LOG

Date – 04-Aug-2014

Aircraft – B788/L

Origin – Gregorio Luperon Int’l (MDPP / POP)

Destination – Lajes Air Base Int. (LPLA / TER)

Departure – 05:09PM AST

Arrival – 03:18AM AZOST (+1)

Duration – 6:09