Petrified airline passengers sent goodbye texts to their loved ones after their plane plunged nearly 30,000 feet in seven minutes.

Panic broke out on the Delta flight from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale when the plane dropped from an altitude of 39,000 feet to 10,000 feet leaving them fearing for their lives.

Harris DeWoskin and other passengers captured the chaos which shows passengers panicking after oxygen masks dropped from their overhead compartments.

Cabin crew tried their best to calm passengers down.

Harris told WFTS : "Out of nowhere, I felt what felt like a sort of a rapid descent.

"One of the flight attendants, I believe, grabbed the intercom and was just repeating over the intercom stating: "Do not panic! Do not panic!"'.

"But, obviously, it's a hectic moment so, the passengers around me, a lot of people, were kind of hyperventilating."

Delta said the sudden descent was caused by "cabin pressurisation irregularity en route".

Harris added: "Life is fragile. There was a scary 60 to 90 seconds where we really didn't know what was going on.

"You are 15,000 feet in the air — it's a scary moment for sure."

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A Delta spokesman said the plane was diverted to Tampa and landed "without incident". 

Mechanics at Tampa International Airport are now examining the plane to find out what went wrong.

Preliminary data by software company FlightAware shows the plane descended from 39,000 feet at 4.34pm to 9,975 feet at 4.42pm.

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