I'm A Celebrity star Jill Scott left terrified after…

I'm A Celebrity star Jill Scott left terrified after plane 'nose-dived' on way home from World Cup

Football star Jill Scott once feared she was going to die on a plane alongside her fellow Lionesses after the aircraft started to nose-drive.

The former England women's footballer, who is starring on ITV's I'm A Celebrity, has revealed she was on a flight with her teammates during the 2019 Women's World Cup in France when the incident happened.

Sunderland-born Jill was sitting next to current England captain Leah Williamson because the star had taken several magazines on to distract the I'm A Celebrity contestant from her fear of flying, and she is "forever grateful" to the skipper for comforting her during the ordeal.

She said: "We nearly went down. It was really bad. It was the World Cup in France. Even the pilot said it had never happened to him in 30 years. Before anyone says it was an air pocket or a weather pocket, it was something worse.

"All of our heads went up. At the time we were listening to music and were talking about a James Morrison song [Love is Hard]. Out of 3,000 songs [on Leah's iPod, which was on shuffle] that song actually came on next, then that plane thing happened and I thought, 'This is meant to be, our lives are over.'

"But to be fair, when that happened to the plane, I actually didn't get scared because I was listening to the song. Everyone was texting home and ringing home on the plane. It was so bad. We were just like, [singing] 'Love is hard, if it was easy it wouldn't mean nothing.'

"People were being sick. We had a lot of flights that trip but after that one of the staff members didn't fly [again]. I am forever grateful to Leah for that moment."

Leah explained: "Jill always sits next to [England goalkeeper] Carly [Telford], but Carly had basically had enough of Jill on these flights. This was like our fifth flight. I had magazines in my bag and I knew Jill was nervous, so I would give them to her [for the crosswords].

"As we were walking onto the flight, the plane was tiny, so Carly was basically saying, 'She's going to be a nightmare.' So I was like, 'I've got these, I'll sit and do them with her.'

"The plane just dropped mid-air. It hit this air pocket. The pilot had to get out of it, so he dropped the plane. Someone actually screamed at the back of the plane, 'We're going down!'

"The air hostess dropped into the seat and the trolley was free for all. I was totally fine and was like, 'Oh well, what will be will be.' "

Jill claims her fear of flying developed after she once sat next to Lioness Farrah Williams on a flight, reports The Mirror. She said: "Can I just say with my fear of flying, I didn't have it for 12 years and then I had to sit next to [Lioness] Farrah Williams. She gave me my fear of flying. I've got a fear of flying now, it's really bad."

But Jill managed to do the 24-hour flight to Australia, and since arriving in the I'm A Celebrity camp she has been cracking plenty of jokes.

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