More than a dozen passengers onboard a Korean Air flight are recovering after the plane experienced severe turbulence this past weekend.
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Korean Air Flight 197 had just taken off and was heading to Mongolia from South Korea’s Incheon Airport on Sunday, Aug. 4, when it encountered terrifying conditions.
Of the 281 passengers on board the aircraft, ten of them, as well as four flight attendants, suffered back and neck injuries when the plane was hit with roughly 15 seconds of severe turbulence.
A Korean Air flight operated by an Airbus A330 aircraft (HL7584) caught by severe Turbulence, left 10 passengers and four cabin crew members injured.
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) August 8, 2024
On Sunday around 8am local time, Korean Air flight KE197 departed from the Seoul Incheon International Airport and headed to… pic.twitter.com/3Nx9r58fTn
Kim Hae-in, a travel blogger who was onboard the flight, recalled the scary moment. “People who weren’t wearing seat belts shot up into the air,” Hae-in explained. “One passenger bounced really high, hit their head on the ceiling, and dropped into the aisle.”
Another passenger also stated that the turbulence occurred while passengers were wrapping up their onboard meals. “The airplane sharply plunged so people were screaming and the meals were all knocked off. It was chaotic.”
A spokesperson for Korean Air revealed that the injured passengers were given pain medication onboard. When they landed at Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar airport, they were assessed by medics. It was noted that none of the passengers were severely injured during the turbulence incident.
The airline also issued a statement about the situation. “We advise passengers to minimize moving around the plane while it is in the air and to always fasten their seat belts when seated.”
Korean Air recently announced it would no longer provide economy class passengers with instant noodles during long-running flights. This is to help prevent burn incidents during noticeably rough turbulence.
More Than Two Dozen Passengers Injured in Severe Turbulence, Prompting Emergency Landing
As previously reported, a total of 30 passengers onboard a Spanish airline Air Europa plane were physically injured during severe turbulence last month. The scary incident caused the aircraft to make an emergency landing in Brazil.
Air Europa’s Flight UX045A was heading for Montevideo on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner when it was forced to be diverted to Natal International Airport in Brazil due to the mid-air situation. Those injured and needing medical attention were being treated at centers in Natal.
“There are passengers with fractures and injuries to their arms, faces, and legs,” a passenger, known only as Stevan, recalled. “It was a pretty horrible feeling. We thought we were going to die there.”
Another passenger stated, “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.”
Air Europa issued a statement about the incident. The airline revealed that the backup plane it sent transferred 303 passengers to Montevideo, Uruguay.
“Air Europa transferred the passengers by bus to the city of Recife,” the airline said. “Where the characteristics of its airport facilitate the operation of the long-haul fleet. Once there, they boarded a new plane from Madrid sent especially for this trip, and flew to Montevideo in the early hours of the morning.”
Among those injured during the incident was a 2-year-old child, who ended up in the plane’s ceiling.