YouTube star Arieh ‘Xiaomanyc’ Smith shared his emotional story of how his flight to Ghana had to be turned around due to a fuel error with the plane.
Xiaomanyc is one of New York City’s most legendary content creators.
With over five million subscribers on YouTube, the 32-year-old has gone viral dozens of times for his ability to shock the multi-cultural population of NYC with his secret superpower of speaking tons of languages, capturing their joyful surprise on camera.
On July 27, Smith uploaded a video to his channel that was out of character for his channel, a vlog where he detailed his flight to Ghana which ultimately had to be turned around.
Xiaomanyc tells story of flight to Ghana that had engine trouble
Smith shared that he has tried multiple times to travel to the West African country of Ghana, and finally after obtaining a visa and proper shots, was able to secure a flight and hotel.
Sadly, he’d never fully make that trip across the North Atlantic. When he got to JFK airport, he found out his flight’s pilot was sick and the trip was delayed until the next day. When he returned to the airport and boarded a plane that finally would take off, just a “couple” hours into the flight, things started getting scary for the YouTuber.
He noticed the captain exited the cockpit and came down his aisle, looking through passengers’ windows towards the wing of the plane. Just a half-hour later, the captain made an announcement that there was a fuel issue and the flight had to be turned around back to New York.
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Xiaoman went into the bathroom and recorded himself fighting back tears and said, “I hope everything’s okay with this flight. It would be really great to hold my baby again. If this is my last video, and I’m sure I’m overreacting, I love my family and I love my friends.”
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Smith then recorded the text messages between him and his wife where he said, “Please don’t be worried. We are over the Atlantic right now and had to turn around. It will be safe. But, if anything happens I love you so much and let baby Elan know how much I love him always.”
Luckily the plane managed to make a safe landing back in NYC. As he exited the plane the captain recognized him and invited him into the cockpit where he explained why they had to turn around. The pilot showed Xiaoman that the plane had a fuel imbalance that couldn’t be corrected, causing them to have to turn around.
Arieh concluded the video emploring his viewers to “hug their loved ones” after going through such an emotional rollercoaster.