An actress who was on a United Airlines jet says she penned a goodbye letter to her partner during an emergency landing

united airlines

(United Airlines Boeing 757.Wikimedia Commons)

On Monday, a United Airlines jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport in Ireland.

United Airlines Flight 76, en route from Belfast, Northern Ireland to Newark, New Jersey, encountered a "mechanical issue" reportedly associated with the plane's landing gear shortly after takeoff, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

While the plane safely landed, the experience left some passengers shaken up.

One of the passengers on board the flight, actress Geraldine Hughes, told the Daily Mail that she became emotional with the thought of potentially "not making it." In fact, the actress went as far as penning a goodbye letter to her partner.

"It was awful," Hughes, who appeared in the movie Rocky Balboa, said to the Daily Mail. "It is amazing what this sort of situation does, because we knew for two hours that maybe the landing gear wasn't going to work and we kept hearing this noise."

"But the crew were fantastic — I trusted every single one of them that they would take care of us. And it was the smoothest landing ever — it was crazy," the actress added.

actress geraldine hughes

(Actress Geraldine Hughes says she penned a goodbye letter to her partner during the emergency landing.Getty Images)

"As soon as we took off there was a funny noise," passenger Brendan McKeown told Belfast Live.

"We were sitting midway along the plane, at the wings, and we heard this noise, not a bang, but a loud noise, then this grinding sound."

According to FlightAware.com, the Boeing 757-200 took off from Belfast at 11:18 am local time before circling over Ireland for several hours to burn off enough fuel so the plane would be light enough to safely land.

The flight landed safely shortly before 2:30 pm local time in Shannon.

According to the BBC, no injuries were reported among the 130 passengers and crew on board the flight.

United Airlines explained the situation in a statement to Business Insider:

"Our team at Shannon Airport provided assistance to customers of flight UA76 (Belfast-New York/Newark), which diverted to Shannon Airport, Ireland because of a mechanical issue. The aircraft landed safely yesterday at 2:27 p.m. local time. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and they are now on their way to their final destinations."

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