Passengers on board a white-knuckle flight during yesterday's storm screamed in terror as a landing at Wellington Airport was suddenly aborted and the plane flown into a turbulent thunder cloud.
Blenheim woman Carol-Ann Herbert was left shaken and apprehensive about taking to the air again after Air New Zealand flight NZ443 from Auckland was forced back into the air moments from touching down in the capital city during yesterday's storm.
Mrs Herbert said the following minutes were some of the scariest of her life with passengers on board the large airbus yelling out in fear.
"We got to about 800 feet and then just powered out. Then we went through the thunder cloud. It was just massive lifts and drops, ups and downs, with a lot of banging and crashing and lots of squealing."
Whipped about by the turbulence, her fears compounded when she heard a distinct electronic siren near the cockpit.