Passengers Injured After Flight Nosedives
Jennifer Billock May 06, 2016
At least seven passengers were injured when a flight to Pittsburgh hit severe turbulence over the ocean.
Passengers on an Allegiant Air flight from Punta Cana to Pittsburgh had a scare on Thursday after the flight hit severe turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas and took a nosedive. The force of the turbulence and dive threw people out of their seats and injured at least seven people—four flight crew and three passengers—some of whom hit their heads and were bleeding. All were hospitalized after the plane made an emergency landing in Fort Lauderdale, but said to have non-life threatening injuries.
“I thought, ‘the plane’s going down, and I’m going to die.’ It was like the plane’s falling out of the sky,” passenger Malachi Witt told TribLive.
Initial reports from the flight crew termed the event “unreported moderate clear air turbulence.” At least one passenger ended up with someone else’s blood on her.
“I have people’s blood on my feet,” passenger Amanda Kuhn told WTAE-TV. “The flight attendants were injured and nobody could help them so I just ran up and got ice and paper towels.”
Passenger Heather Osborne also recounted her tale to WTAE-TV: “We were flying normal, I was actually sleeping, and all of a sudden I heard a little jolt and then all of a sudden a big jolt and I looked over and my mom was flying up in the air,” she said. “I actually had my seatbelt on, my mom didn’t, but I saw her flying in the air. She hit her head and hit her hip area.”
The flight was chartered by Apple Vacations. Paramedics and firefighters met the plane when it landed.
[Screengrab via WTAE]
"Nosedives" is both over-dramatic and incorrect. Firstly, when a plane enters an area of "sink" at 600mph, there's only a fraction of a second for the sink to pitch the nose down before it's hit the rest of the aircraft too - not nearly long enough to induce a "nosedive". In reality (unless the sink is tightly marginalised and off to one side), the whole aircraft descends in a relatively flat trajectory. Secondly, the descriptions make it sound as if the plane had dropped hundreds or thousands of feet. In turb, nothing could be further from the truth. The typical drop (as verified by GPS and/or radar altimeter in numerous craft) is in the order of only 30-50ft. The reason it feels more is that, if you've not got your seatbelt secured, your body - not, of course, subject to the same turbulent forces as the plane around you - is trying to be 30-50' above where the fuselage is. Blame Isaac Newton! Unsurprisingly, that means you're now looking down on the overhead lockers, assuming you're still conscious after hitting the ceiling with force (and the contents of the drinks cart). Still, it's cheaper than flying the Vomit Comet, even if the medical expenses are higher...
I a lot of people see the FA come, put their seatbelts on; as soon as the FA is gone, seatbelts are detached. I mean are seatbelts that uncomfortable?
Definitions of what's moderate and what's severe can be found here: http://www.iata.org/publications/documents/guidance-on-turbulence-management.pdf Overall if somebody is flying in the air, this is probably severe.
That's what I'm saying. I always see people taking of their seat belts for no reason. This flight sounded like I may have enjoyed it. Turbulence is fun!
"Moderate"??