Passengers were sent flying, along with everything else that wasn’t strapped down, when a SAS Scandinavian Airlines flight from Copenhagen to Miami hit severe turbulence on Thursday afternoon.
Dramatic video taken by an eyewitness at the moment that the aircraft suddenly dropped shows passengers screaming in terror as anyone who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt was propelled towards the ceiling as debris scattered around the cabin.
Thankfully, a spokesperson for SAS said that no one onboard the Airbus A330 was seriously injured in the incident, although the pilots decided to divert the plane back to Europe, landing in Stockholm several hours later.
The nine-year-old aircraft was flying over Greenland at around 36,000 feet when the aircraft encountered an area of severe turbulence, according to data supplied by Flight Radar 24.
A decision to divert the aircraft all the way back to Stockholm was made on the basis that the airport is a major hub for the carrier and was better equipped to carry out a technical inspection of the aircraft.
The incident occurred just days after a Lufthansa flight from Buenos Aires to Frankfurt, which also encountered severe turbulence during its transatlantic crossing on November 11.
In a statement, Lufthansa confirmed that five passengers and six crew members sustained minor injuries as flight LH511 flew through the Intertropical Convergence Zone.
This time of year is well-known for causing rough weather and turbulence on transatlantic flights, as strong winds and jetstreams power across the Atlantic.
These two incidents are yet more reminders of why passengers should remain strapped in whenever they are seated and not just when the ‘fasten seatbelt’ sign is turned on.
In recent months, a growing number of international airlines have slightly amended their onboard procedures to require passengers to have their seatbelts fastened whenever they are seated – rather than recommending passengers to strap themselves in.
In most cases, however, this rule is not enforced unless the seatbelt sign is switched on.
