ANP/AP
ANNOUNCEMENTS••Edited
Dozens of people were injured on a flight to Hawaii due to severe turbulence. Eleven of them were seriously injured. The Hawaiian Airlines plane was carrying nearly 300 people from Phoenix to Honolulu.
Shortly before arrival, the aircraft encountered severe turbulence. Occupants and objects flew through the cabin, causing cuts, bruises and nausea.
The pilot managed to land the plane in Honolulu at 10:50 am local time. A total of 36 people received medical treatment, 20 of which were taken to hospital.
Intense gradients
Passenger Kaylee Reyes says against Hawaii news now that the turbulence came suddenly. Her mother had just sat down and she didn’t have the opportunity to fasten her seat belt. “She flew up and hit the ceiling,” Reyes says.
Another passenger, Jazmin Bitanga, says there have been two steep drops in altitude. One of them, according to Bitanga, was so strong that her boyfriend’s water bottle flew from the ceiling and broke. “I turned around and there were some people bleeding and getting ready,” Bitanga said Hawaii news now. “People were crying around me.”
Jon Snook, director of operations for Hawaiian Airlines, says such turmoil is unusual. The airline was aware that thunderstorms would occur on the flight path. But the airline was not warned that the site of the turbulence was “dangerous in any way,” Snook said.
An investigation involving the National Transportation Safety Board will determine how much altitude the plane lost in the turbulence and what the crew and passengers were doing at the time.
Passengers say they won’t soon forget this busy flight:
“We won’t soon forget this flight, so much turbulence”
