Properly terrified means, what?

Pooping yourself? Because if this had happened to me, I imagine that's what I would have done.

The French officials said the plane lost 26,200 feet of altitude in five minutes before the landing, which the pilot requested.

Is it just me, or are a lot of planes falling from the sky lately? All the more reason for me to drive everywhere.

"I think it's fair to say there was muffled consternation in the first few seconds," passenger Pen Hadow told Sky News. "People were clearly suffering with the shock of it, but on the whole ... people had a stiff upper lip about it and they were resigned to their fate. They were properly terrified.

"They thought they were going to meet their maker. And that's not an exaggeration," Hadow added.

Give this guy the Understatement Award of 2008.