Matthew McConaughey is opening up about his terrifying experience aboard a flight that made an emergency landing last month, leaving seven passengers hospitalized. In an April 12 appearance on Kelly Ripa's Let's Talk Off Camera podcast, the Oscar-winning actor provided minute-by-minute details of the severe turbulence that forced the plane to ground. "My tray table is what held me down," he revealed.
McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves were aboard a Lufthansa flight traveling from Austin, Texas, to Frankfurt, Germany, when the plane suddenly hit severe turbulence 37,000 feet above Tennessee.
"Your red wine and the glass and the plates that your food was on are all suspended, floating, still, just in the air," McConaughey recalled. "And to look at it for that long, which wasn't that long — one, two, three, four [seconds] — and then everything just comes crashing down."
The plane reportedly dropped an astonishing 4,000 feet in a matter of seconds — an experience McConaughey called a "hell of a scare." When he felt the aircraft lose momentum, he says, he "immediately reached over, made sure Camila has her seatbelt on."
"My tray table is what held me down," McConaughey continued. "I did not have my seatbelt on, and there was not a seatbelt warning right before it happened."
Alves shared the harrowing details of the disastrous flight experience on Instagram, posting a video from inside the plane that shows food and napkins littered across the floor. "Everything was flying everywhere. To respect the privacy of those around me that's all I am showing but the plane was a CHAOS And the turbulence keep on coming," Alves captioned the footage, adding: "Thank God everyone was safe and ok."
The plane safely made an emergency landing at the Virginia airport, according to the FAA, per People. While seven passengers were hospitalized after the incident, there is no indication that anyone sustained serious injuries.
"It's suspended disbelief. I mean, it's zero gravity," McConaughey explained, adding that he was seated next to a pilot friend who offered words of assurance throughout the flight:
"I happened to have a friend of mine sitting next to me who was a pilot. And he was calm as could be. I was like, 'Can the plane hold that?' And he was like, 'These things are so tested that, yes, don't worry. The plane structurally can hold that.' That was a big relief."
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