At least 40 passengers were injured when an Air Europa flight from Madrid to Montevideo encountered severe turbulence, prompting an emergency landing in Brazil, as reported.
According to Brazil’s health secretariat in Rio Grande do Norte state, the injured individuals were transported to hospitals and clinics in Natal for treatment of minor injuries and abrasions, with eleven still hospitalized.
Read more: Four Fatalities During Storms In Switzerland And Italy, While Wildfires Rage In Greece And Turkey
Air Europa confirmed that 30 passengers were injured due to strong turbulence on flight UX045 bound for Montevideo. The plane diverted to Natal airport in Brazil, where injured passengers received immediate medical attention.
The aircraft involved was identified as a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, capable of carrying up to 339 passengers, according to Air Europa’s website and FlightAware tracking data.
Passengers described a sudden and intense turbulence incident that caused the plane to destabilize and descend abruptly. Some passengers without seat belts were thrown upward, hitting the ceiling and sustaining injuries, while those properly restrained experienced fewer injuries.
Damage inside the aircraft was reported following the turbulent incident, which caused considerable fear among passengers, although no fatalities occurred.
“From one moment to the next, the plane destabilized and went into a dive. The people who didn’t have seat belts went up in the air and hit the ceiling, and they got hurt – those who had seat belts on, not so much,” one of the passengers, Maximiliano, told.
Another passenger, Stevan, told the news agency: “There are passengers with fractures and injuries to their arms, faces, and legs. There are about 30 people injured. It was a pretty horrible feeling; we thought we were going to die there, but thank God it didn’t happen.”
