Passenger snaps shocking pictures of Los Angeles wildfires on ‘terrifying’ flight to LAX

Shocking photos show the extent of the huge wildfires currently rampaging through Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. The pictures were taken by a passenger on board a passenger flight landing at Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Tuesday evening (January 7).

California firefighters are battling the wildfires tearing across the LA area amid high winds, destroying homes and causing tens of thousands of people to flee. The fire that broke out on Tuesday evening near a nature reserve in the inland foothills north-east of LA has spread rapidly with a second blaze ripping through the city’s Pacific Palisades - a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity residences and made famous by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit Surfin’ USA.

A third wildfire started at around 10.30pm local time on Tuesday (6.30am GMT on Wednesday) and quickly prompted evacuations in Sylmar, a San Fernando Valley community that is the northernmost area in Los Angeles.

Tai Wright, 32, from North Hollywood, was on board a diverted aircraft when they flew above the devastating fires. The flight from Dallas Fort Worth had been diverted from Hollywood Burbank Airport to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with Tai snapping the photographs just before 9pm.

She said: "We approached the fire seen in the photos. I remained lighthearted and talkative at first, so as to remain calm myself and keep those around me feeling the same. However, we began feeling the heat from the fire directly beneath us and the turbulence that followed, which turned the flight from a nervously casual experience to a more terrifying one for everyone as we all grew quiet.

"As we passed the flames, the smoke followed, covering our vision and seeping into the smell of the cabin. Coming out of seemingly total darkness, we realised we were now over the ocean on approach to LAX, and whilst it was relieving to be free of the fire, we saw firsthand the effects of the wind.

"We could only hang on as our pilot expertly landed our craft in spite of the wind’s efforts to rock us, turn us, and push us in different directions. We kept swaying, vying for direction and balance all the way up until touchdown - one of only a handful of times I’ve genuinely applauded the pilot at the end of a flight.

"The experience was extremely scary for everyone on board, but I didn’t fully feel that until the adrenaline left my body in the Uber ride home. It was an interesting shared experience that seemingly brought a group of strangers together in an otherwise asocial situation, which was the positive element to how surreal the whole night turned out to be."

Officials in and around the US city are preparing for the situation to worsen on Wednesday as California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency. The causes of all three fires are under investigation.