Terrified air passengers were thrown out of their seats as severe turbulence rocked a Hawaiian Airlines flight, seriously injuring 11.
Passengers on the packed flight from Phoenix to Honolulu vomited during the sudden drop in altitude with at least one knocked unconscious.
Twenty people were taken to hospital after the emergency landing, with 11 people in a “serious condition”.
Patients suffered cuts, including to the head, as well as bumps and bruises but all were awake and talking when they arrived at hospital, it was reported.
Jon Snook, the airline’s chief operating officer, said the airline hasn’t experienced “an incident of this nature in recent history.” The flight was full, carrying 278 passengers and 10 crew members, he said during an afternoon news conference.
Passenger Kaylee Reyes told Hawaii News Now that her mother had just sat down when the turbulence hit and did not have a chance to buckle her safety belt.
“She flew up and hit the ceiling,” Reyes said.
Snook said there was some internal damage to the aircraft during the turbulence. The seatbelt sign was on at the time, though some of those injured weren’t wearing them, he said.
Thomas Vaughan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu, said there had been a weather advisory for thunderstorms that included Oahu and areas that would have included the flight path at the time of the incident.
The airline was aware of the weather forecast and the unstable air and weather conditions, but had no warning the particular patch of air where the turbulence occurred “was in any way dangerous,” Snook said.
The Airbus A330-200 began its descent immediately after the turbulence and crew declared an emergency due to the number of injuries on board, he said. Air traffic controllers gave the flight priority to land.
“If you don’t have your seatbelt on, you stay where you are as the aircraft goes down and that’s how those injuries occur,” Snook said.
The investigation will examine what other measures were taken, aside from turning on the fasten seatbelt sign, to ensure passengers were buckled in, he said.
Most people associate turbulence with heavy storms. But the most dangerous type is so-called clear-air turbulence. The wind-shear phenomenon can occur in wispy cirrus clouds or even clear air near thunderstorms, as differences in temperature and pressure create powerful currents of fast-moving air.
