WATCH: An Emirates flight flew for 14 hours with a massive hole in the plane

For travellers who have a fear of flying, this would have been their worst nightmare come true.

Picture: Screengrab

When boarding a long-haul international flight, passengers put their lives, and trust, in the hands of the captain and the cabin crew.

Naturally, you would also expect the captain to keep passengers updated on the safety of the flight, especially if there is a big, gaping hole in the side of the aircraft.

Passengers onboard an Emirates A380 flight from Dubai to Brisbane in Australia were left shocked when they disembarked their 14-hour flight last week, only to stare into the massive hole in the side of the plane.

According to Ticker News, the passengers heard that there had been some sort of commotion during their flight, but they were led to believe that the accident occurred as the landing gear was coming down.

Watch the video of the hole in the plane below:

This video is no longer available.

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However, it has since come to light, after speaking to some of the passengers, that it was the other way around, and that the incident already occurred during cruise-off and that the hole was already there as early as 45 minutes into the long-haul flight.

This has led to a whole bunch of questions about the safety of the plane for passengers and the decompression of the cabin.

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One passenger said that the flight attendants were very much aware of what was going on and that the captain telegraphed this information through to Brisbane asking for an emergency landing and for emergency services to be available when the plane landed.

Passengers only became aware of how lucky they were to survive the flight when they disembarked and were met with the sight of the gaping hole in the side of the aeroplane.

In a statement Emirates said that flight EK430 flying from Dubai to Brisbane, on July 1, experienced a technical fault.

“One of the aircraft’s 22 tires ruptured during cruise, causing damage to a small portion of the aerodynamic fairing, which is an outer panel or the skin of the aircraft,” the statement read.

*Compiled by Xanet Scheepers