Around 30 passengers on an Air Europa flight from Madrid to Uruguay were injured after the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was rocked by severe turbulence as it was flying at around 36,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday night.
Air Europa flight UX45 departed Madrid Barajas at around 12:30 am, bound for Montevideo, and was around 10 hours into the 12-hour flight when the plane was rocked by severe and unexpected turbulence.
Video taken by passengers onboard the aircraft showed extensive damage throughout the cabin, including broken and dented ceiling panels, which is consistent with damage caused by passengers being thrown to the ceiling.
Anyone who wasn’t strapped in at the time of the accident is likely to have been lifted upwards to the ceiling, resulting in multiple injuries.
The pilots decided to make an emergency diversion to Natal, Brazil, where the aircraft landed safely on Monday morning. Due to their injuries, around six passengers had to be transported to the hospital.
In a statement posted on the airline’s official account on X, a spokesperson said that only “minor injuries” were reported, although the plane has now been grounded due to the extensive damage throughout the cabin.
Air Europa is due to send a rescue plane from its Madrid hub in order to collect the passengers and take them the rest of the way to Montevideo.
This latest incident comes just two months after Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from London Heathrow to Singapore suffered such severe turbulence that one passenger died after suffering a suspected heart attack.
Dozens of passengers were seriously injured, and some sustained life-changing spinal injuries when they were flung into the air when the Boeing 777 suddenly dropped in an area of thunderstorms.
As a result of the Singapore Airlines accident, the aviation industry has promised to take turbulence more seriously and airlines are trying to encourage passengers to wear their seatbelts at all times and not just when the seatbelt sign is switched on.
