Revealed - England World Cup players screamed as plane appeared doomed

Rio Ferdinand...screaming. Photo / Photosport

England's 2006 World Cup team feared they were going to die in an air disaster one of their finest players has revealed.

Rio Ferdinand has spoken about the England footballers' horror trip home from Germany. Ferdinand, who was sitting next to Wayne Rooney and Seven Gerrard and their wives, told The Sun that the plane hit bad weather.

"We'd just been knocked out by Portugal in the quarter-finals and we had the worst flight back you can imagine," Ferdinand told The Sun.

"We got caught up in some terrible weather and everybody thought we were going to crash. We were all crying.

"I was sat near Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard and their wives and everyone was screaming. It was turbulence on another level.

"It was mental and people and luggage were all over the place and no one knew what was going on. I definitely thought, 'this is it', especially when I looked at the air stewardesses.

"You can always gauge how serious things are by their expressions and I looked at them and they were all sat down in their seats stony faced and clearly thinking, f***, we're in trouble.

"I'm usually quite calm but then I looked at them and I was properly scared."