It’s a scenario fit to give you nightmares: you’re trapped on a burning plane and faced with sending your loved ones a goodbye message.

Though the chances of being involved in a serious aviation-related accident are extremely low, nothing man-made is ever truly perfect, and every now and then aircrafts will fail, often resulting in truly catastrophic consequences.

A set of passengers traveling from Corfu, Greece, to Düsseldorf, Germany, this past Saturday (August 17) must have believed their luck had run out when their Condor Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Italy after flames were sighted by people on the ground.

According to German news site WDR, the Boeing 757 carrying 273 passengers and eight crew members began to experience turbine airflow disruption at an altitude of around 36,000 feet.

Reportedly, passengers were also acutely aware that their plane was on fire, with one cell phone video, taken from the cabin, showing flames erupting from the right engine.

The plane had only been in the air for 40 minutes when those onboard heard a rattling sound, according to WDR.

“We were already in the air, and then we heard a really loud rattling noise,” recalled passenger Leah Steininger. “Then, after about 20 minutes, we received a message saying the transmission was completely off.”

Though the airline insist none of the passengers’ lives were in danger, those onboard were obviously and understandably alarmed.

“It was an incredibly horrible experience. I already sent goodbye texts because I thought, ‘It’s over now’,” said one passenger.

The plane was forced to make its emergency landing at Brindisi Airport in southern Italy, fifteen minutes after the flames began.

“The reason was a parameter indication outside the normal range caused by a disturbance in the air flow supply to the engine,” a statement by Condor Airlines read.

“Due to the fault message, it was precautionarily decided to divert to Brindisi. The aircraft landed around 8.15pm at Brindisi Airport, and all guests disembarked the aircraft normally.”

Along with the videos from the cabin itself, footage from those on the ground was also captured. One such video shows the plane’s engine spitting flames, flashing in the sky before the fire dies out.

“I was just chilling … then realized a plane was literally fighting fire in front of me,” one TikTok user posted.

What a terrifying experience!