TV presenter Scarlette Douglas has revealed she was originally meant to be on the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009, killing 228 people – including a close friend.
The A Place in the Sun host shared the harrowing story at the Taste of London Food Festival in Regent’s Park, admitting that air travel still fills her with fear.
“I lost a really good friend of mine in the Air France crash from Brazil to France,” Douglas shared.
“The scary thing was I was supposed to be on that flight. She had booked it.”
Douglas had been forced to cancel the journey due to filming commitments in Hollywood.
“I used to be a dancer, I was in the Gulliver’s Travels movie with Jack Black – it meant I couldn’t go,” she told the Daily Mail.
“I felt awful. When I heard the news on the radio, I remember hoping it wasn’t that flight.”
Air France Flight 447 crashed on 1 June 2009 after leaving Rio de Janeiro en route to Paris.
Cockpit recordings captured the final moments before the flight crashed into the Atlantic.
One of the pilots can be heard saying: “We’ve lost our speeds. I don’t know what’s happening.”
Moments later, the aircraft crashed during its journey from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 1 June 2009, killing all 228 people on board.
Among those who died were several British passengers, including 11-year-old Alexander Bjoroy from Bristol and PR executive Neil Warrior.
Investigators later found that a combination of faulty equipment and pilot error during a storm led to the tragedy.
The presenter also spoke about her ongoing fear of flying, which was heightened following the recent Air India Flight 171 crash in Ahmedabad.
The Gatwick-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, crashed in a huge fireball in the Indian city of Ahmedabad just seconds after it went into the air.
Aviation experts say it is nearly impossible to survive a fully-fuelled plane crash into a high-rise building. Yet, British father Vishwash Kumar Ramesh remarkably stumbled from the wreckage of the flight moments before it exploded.
He had been sat in seat 11A, just metres away from his younger brother Ajaykumar Ramesh, who was killed in the devastating crash.
“I’m so scared of flying. Any time I take off I say my prayer and pray that I make it,” she said.
Despite her fears, the presenter plans to fly with her parents to Jamaica this summer.
