Shock at 11,000 meters
Dozens injured on flight to Hawaii
12/19/2022, 8:20 am
A thunderstorm is brewing about 30 minutes before a flight lands in Hawaii. Flight HA35 then encountered severe turbulence: passengers were thrown from their seats and at least one person was hit by the ceiling.
During a flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Honolulu, Hawaii, 36 people were injured, 11 of them seriously, in severe turbulence. A 14-month-old baby and a teenager are also among the injured, authorities said overnight according to US media reports. Due to the extreme air turbulence at an altitude of approximately 11,000 meters, some passengers were thrown from their seats and at least one person fell to the floor.
Dents and cracks in the ceiling panels can be seen in pictures of the Airbus A330-243 interior. There were 238 passengers and 10 crew members on board the Hawaiian Airlines plane. According to the airline, the plane landed at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at around 11:00 am local time on Sunday. Emergency Medical Services in Honolulu said medical personnel treated injured passengers and crew. Reportedly, no one was seriously injured.
Dents and cracks in the ceiling panels can be seen in pictures of the Airbus A330-243 interior.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Courtesy of Jazmin Bitanga via AP)
Passengers sustained head injuries, bruises and lacerations and some lost consciousness. Turbulence is unexpected air movement and can be caused by cold and warm fronts, thunderstorms, jet streams, and even heavy, slow-moving aircraft. According to the New York Times, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu said that at the time of the turbulence – about 30 minutes before touchdown – there was a weather warning for thunderstorms.
Passenger Kaylee Reyes said her mother didn’t get a chance to put on her seat belt, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat website. “She flew up and hit the ceiling,” Reyes said, adding that the turbulence came out of nowhere. Time and time again, people get injured in turbulence during flights. In 2019, 30 people needed treatment at New York’s Kennedy International Airport, four years earlier 21 passengers were injured aboard an Air Canada flight in aerial turbulence.