Passenger Dr Alan Lee told NBC News: “People who didn’t buckle their seat belts were flying up and hitting the ceiling”.
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A JetBlue flight from Boston to Sacramento hit severe turbulence Thursday evening, causing injuries to 22 passengers and two crew members and forcing the Airbus 320 aircraft to land in Rapid City, South Dakota.
One of the passengers tweeted about the flight, including a photo from inside the plane of a fellow passenger wearing a neck brace after the flight had landed.
“I literally grabbed her out of the air to hold her to the seat”, said Lindahl, a software engineer from Sacramento. A flight attendant was assisted off the plane by medical personnel.
In May, JetBlue experienced a similar happening with a flight from Puerto Rico to Orlando; eight people were injured in the incident.
Though JetBlue did not give a reason for the turbulence, it is believed that thunderstorms played a role. After passing through a first storm, the plane came upon a second, which the pilot attempted to fly over or around.
“There was a frontal boundary moving across the central plains that caused bad weather conditions in that region at the time of the turbulence”, said CNN weather producer Michael Guy.
“You can see thunderstorms, both from the cockpit and on radar”, Miller added. “Although they tried, they could not do that in this situation”.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said the agency is investigating the incident and has requested that flight recorders be sent to its headquarters.
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All those treated at hospital received minor injuries and were released by Friday morning, whilst jetBlue dispatched a replacement plane for the remaining passengers to continue their journey.
