A United passenger on a plane that had to land because of an 8-inch hole in the fuselage says she thought she was going to die

• A United Airlines flight bound for Rome last week had a "pressurization issue," the airline said.
• A passenger on the flight told The New York Post she thought she was going to die.

A passenger on a United Airlines flight that had to land because of an 8-inch hole in the fuselage last week told The New York Post that thought she was going to die.

Artist Tato Lovere was on United Flight 510 bound for Rome, Italy, on September 13 when the pilot was forced to return to Newark Liberty International Airport due to a "pressurization issue," the company said in a statement.

Lovere told The Post that she started to get a "sick feeling" when she felt the plane rapidly descending roughly four hours into their flight.

The Boeing 777 descended from 37,000 feet to just below 9,000 feet in around eight minutes, according to data from the tracking site Flight Aware. This is only slightly faster than the normal speed of descent, which is around 3,000 feet a minute, according to the Pilot Insitute.

"You saw people's heads turning, you had people looking at each other, you had people looking for answers without screaming," Lovere, who was on the flight with her boyfriend, said.

"I tried the best I could first to text message my daughter without causing fear, of letting her know I love her very much and I am proud of her," she added.

Lovere said her daughter had been tracking the flight online and started getting concerned when she saw the plane flying in circles over Nova Scotia in Canada.

When her daughter contacted United Airlines to ask what was happening, they told her "everything was fine," Lovere said.

Meanwhile, the pilot decided to turn the aircraft around and head back to New Jersey because it would be unsafe to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, CNN reported.

The plane, which had 270 passengers and 14 crew members on board eventually, landed safely and never lost cabin pressure, United Airlines said in a statement, according to CNN.

Once everyone was back at the airport gate, the pilot told passengers that there had been a "6 or 8-inch hole on the side of the airplane" which was causing a pressurization issue, Lovere told The Post.

Insider is unable to verify that information but reached out to the airline for comment.

Lovere was able to be rebooked for the next United plane out to Rome hours later.