Select the option that expresses the given sentence in direct speech.

The pilot reported that the aircraft had been flying for five hours and that they had experienced heavy turbulence the previous night.

The correct option is: The pilot reported, “The aircraft has been flying for five hours, and we experienced heavy turbulence last night.”

To convert a sentence from indirect speech to direct speech, the following grammatical rules apply:
1. Punctuation and Structure: Remove the conjunction "that", insert a comma after the reporting verb "reported", and enclose the spoken statement in quotation marks ("...").
2. Pronoun Change: The pronoun "they" in indirect speech converts to "we" in direct speech as it refers to the pilot and crew.
3. Tense Reversion:
- The past perfect continuous verb phrase "had been flying" reverts to the present perfect continuous form "has been flying".
- The past perfect verb phrase "had experienced" reverts to the simple past form "experienced".
4. Time Expression Change: The indirect time expression "the previous night" changes back to "last night" in direct speech.

Applying these step-by-step conversions gives: The pilot reported, “The aircraft has been flying for five hours, and we experienced heavy turbulence last night.”