Over 20 Flyers Injured on JetBlue Flight
Joe Cortez August 12, 2016
Passengers exit a JetBlue Airways Corp. plane at Long Beach Airport (LGB) in Long Beach, California, U.S., on Monday, July 22, 2013. JetBlue Airways Corp. is scheduled to release earnings figures on July 30. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
JetBlue Flight 429 experienced extreme turbulence, forcing an emergency landing in South Dakota.
A group of flyers departing from Boston Logan Airport (BOS) headed to California are safely at their destination today, but not before experiencing an extreme turbulence event that injured 24 people. Sioux Falls CBS affiliate KELO-TV reports the incident forced the flight to land at a Rapid City, South Dakota airport.
The flight, carrying a total of 145 passengers, departed Thursday night and was scheduled to land in early morning hours at Sacramento International Airport (SMF) in California. However, during the flight, the passengers experienced an extreme turbulence incident, where the aircraft appeared to drop in altitude.
“Suddenly the plane dropped and anything not fastened down flew into the air, including laptops,” Christopher De Vries, one of the passengers aboard B6429, told KELO-TV. “Soda was sprayed on the ceiling. Then two flight attendants asked if a doctor was on board.”
In addition to the injuries, passengers reported significant damage to the interior of the aircraft, including a broken ceiling panel. One flyer tweeted a picture from a lavatory, where a toilet was ripped from the housing.
Rear toilet was completely ripped from its housing pic.twitter.com/E63wsq0TkY
— Derek Lindahl (@oif_vet) August 12, 2016
The incident forced the pilots to divert the flight to Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP) in South Dakota, where emergency personnel met the aircraft. A total of 24 people, including two flight attendants, were transported to a local hospital for treatment.
Immediately after the incident, JetBlue dispatched another aircraft to take the affected flyers to Sacramento. The majority of the passengers were able to be accommodated on one aircraft and have since arrived at their destination. The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the cause and circumstances revolving the turbulence incident.
[Photo: Fortune.com]
"departed Thursday night and was scheduled to land in early morning hours at Sacramento International Airport (SMF)" Ummm, not exactly -- departed BOS 5:25 PM EDT, scheduled to arrive SMF 8:55 PDT. Diversion resulted in landing at RAP 7:42 MDT. The continuation departed RAP 2:45 AM MDT, arrived SMF 4:19 PDT.
Perhaps in an odd way this makes me feel safer about flying, knowing that turbulence so bad it rips out a commode still can't bring the plane down.
Good grief!!!!!!!... "One flyer tweeted a picture from a lavatory, where a toilet was ripped from the housing" Has this officially been stated as "Extreme Turbulence"?