'I thought the plane was going to crash'

"DAD, it’s me.

Yes, I’m alive." With those words – heard on a telephone answering machine message – Peter and Lynne Vincent’s agonising wait for news of their daughter, Laura, was over.

Until then, the couple knew nothing of the alleged failed attempt to blow up a plane over the US on Christmas Day – or that Laura had been on the flight.

But they had been fretting ever since the 24-year-old failed to appear at Orlando airport.

But it was six-and-a-half hours later on Christmas Day night before they discovered how close they had come to never seeing her again – when they returned to their Florida timeshare and played back Laura’s voicemail.

Yesterday, with her mother at her side, Laura, thought to be the only Briton on the plane, told of her ordeal.

“I thought I was going to die. I kept saying in my head: ‘We’re going to be okay, it’s going to be fine’.

“But I realised it might not be – that this could be it. I thought the plane was going to crash. Inside, I was panicking.

No one wants to die in a plane crash.

“I thought there was nothing I could do. I just thought: ‘If this is it, this is it’.”

Laura, from Chester-le- Street, was travelling to Orlando to spend Christmas with her parents, who were on a Caribbean cruise, and brother Steven, 27.

The Cestria Community Housing research analyst found herself on the targeted Flight 253 after being delayed for seven-and-a-half hours at Durham Tees Valley airport and missing a connection.

Laura stayed in Amsterdam on Christmas Eve, heading for Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day.

She slept most of the flight, but was watching the Johnny Depp film Public Enemies when the alleged bomber, sitting only three rows away, attempted to detonate powdery explosives hidden in his underwear.

Laura said: “I heard a loud popping noise like a balloon popping. I took my headphones out and looked behind me to where the noise was coming from.

“There was smoke coming from the side wall of the plane – where the guy had been sitting.

There was a lot of screaming and people moving from that side.

“The lady sitting next to me looked really scared. We were holding hands and I was telling her everything was going to be okay, we were going to be fine.

“I saw there were flames. I started thinking it was something other than a normal fire. It was only when the guy was being led off in a chokehold that I realised that it was somebody who had actually done it.

“When we landed, it was a total relief. I started crying. I had a let out of emotion I’d been holding in.”

After being interviewed by the FBI, Laura, unable to fly to Orlando immediately and having been given a $13 food voucher, got a taxi to a Best Western hotel. The family finally made contact about 10pm.

Her mother said: “Her dad was on the phone. I could hear her sobbing. I just wanted to be there to hold her, to hug her.

“It was Christmas night. All our plans had gone out the window. We felt absolutely distraught.”

After three hours’ sleep, Laura flew to Orlando, landing at 10.30am on Boxing Day.

Her brother, the first to spot her disembarking, leapt out of his chair, shouting.

Mrs Vincent said: “To hold her in my arms was fantastic – to know she was safe. I didn’t want to let her go.”

Laura returned to Chesterle- Street on New Year’s Eve and the family celebrated their Christmas last Sunday.

She said: “I’m a big believer in fate. I totally believe that it was meant to happen, that I was supposed to be on a flight that day and survive, but I haven’t worked out why.”

Her mother called for airport security to be standardised around the world.

Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was arrested when the plane landed.