Emergency landing at Kansai Airport after terrifying mid-air descent; passengers say they wrote wills mid-flight as oxygen masks deployed
July-2, 2025: A Japan Airlines flight from Shanghai to Tokyo descended into panic on Monday after a Boeing 737 aircraft experienced a rapid loss of cabin pressure and plunged nearly 26,000 feet in just 10 minutes. The aircraft, operating under a code-share agreement between Japan Airlines and Spring Japan, was forced to make an emergency landing at Kansai International Airport. There were 191 passengers and crew members onboard.
The terrifying incident saw oxygen masks deployed as the plane dropped from 36,000 feet to 10,500 feet, causing widespread panic. Passengers later described the mid-air ordeal on social media, with one person saying: “My body is still here, but my soul hasn’t caught up. My legs are still shaking.”
Passengers on a Japan Airlines flight write goodbye notes as a sudden mechanical issue sent the plane into a steep, panic-inducing descent. 😱
— TMZ (@TMZ) July 1, 2025
Full story at the 🔗HERE: https://t.co/hyepx1IPCj
🎥: Viral Press pic.twitter.com/9ZHXO2NgAw
Another recalled the experience as “life-threatening,” explaining how people feared they would lose consciousness due to the pressure drop, while some began writing wills in mid-air. One passenger wrote: “The plane started plummeting violently at around 7 pm and dropped to 3,000 metres in just 20 minutes.”
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Despite the chaos, no injuries were reported when the aircraft landed safely in Osaka. Japan Airlines issued compensation of 15,000 yen ($104) for transportation and provided overnight accommodation for affected passengers. Authorities have since launched an investigation into the mechanical malfunction.
The incident has drawn further scrutiny toward the Boeing 737 series, which has faced multiple global safety issues. Last year, a Jeju Air 737-800 crash in South Korea killed 179 people, and in March 2022, a China Eastern 737 disaster claimed 132 lives.
Adding to the growing concerns about mid-air safety, another incident involving Air India’s Boeing 777 occurred on June 14, when a Delhi-to-Vienna flight dropped 900 feet mid-air. That came just two days after a fatal Air India crash in Ahmedabad, which killed all but one person on board.
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Air India stated that both pilots involved in the Vienna-bound flight have been off-rostered, and the matter has been disclosed to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) pending investigation.
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Japan Airlines, Boeing 737, emergency landing, aviation safety, Kansai Airport, Spring Japan, plane descent, oxygen masks, DGCA, Air India, airline incident, global aviation, flight scare, Boeing safety concerns, July 2025 news