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36 injured, 11 seriously, after Hawaiian Airlines flight experiences "severe turbulence,"


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A flight from Phoenix to Honolulu left 36 people hurt, with 11 sustaining serious injuries, after the plane experienced "severe turbulence," officials said Sunday.

A total of 20 people aboard Hawaiian Airlines Flight 35 were taken to two local hospitals, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services confirmed. Nine of those 20 sustained minor injuries with 11 suffering serious injuries, according to EMS. 

One person was knocked unconscious, Honolulu Emergency Services Department Director Jim Ireland said at a press conference. About 10 passengers experienced nausea and vomiting, Ireland said. Of the 20 people hospitalized, 17 were passengers and three were crew members, according to the airline. The Airbus A330 was full, carrying 278 passengers and 10 crew members — 2 pilots and 8 flight attendants. 

Jon Snook, Hawaiian Air executive vice president and chief operating officer, told reporters the “fasten seatbelt” was on at the time of the incident. He added that three flight attendants were among those injured.

The flight landed safely at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at 10:50 a.m. and medical care was provided at the scene for passengers and crew members who suffered less serious injuries, the airline said.

"We are supporting all affected passengers & employees and are continuing to monitor the situation," Hawaiian Airlines said in a tweet.

The cause of the turbulence has not been confirmed, although there were reports of thunderstorms in the area. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident. 

Jazmin Bitanga, who was on the plane flying home for the holidays, said there were actually two “intense” drops of altitude — one so strong her boyfriend’s water bottle flew into the ceiling and cracked it.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/12/18/multiple-injuries-reported-after-plane-lands-honolulus-airport-following-apparent-turbulence/

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13 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

Since turbulence can be unpredictable, this seems more of a lesson on why they have the seatbelt sign on so damn much. 

Yep.  Back in the mid 90s I was flying back to Dallas from Atlanta on American.  It was a partly cloudy day, no rain/thunderstorms.  Out of the blue, the 737 dropped what seemed like hundreds of feet with zero warning; about 5 minutes later it repeated itself.  Those who didn't have their seatbelts on were slammed against top of the cabin.  Thankfully, the food/bev service had been completed, so there were none of those AA serving carts in the aisle, so no one got hit by those. 

3 or 4 folks were taken to the hospital but don't think anything was that serious. 

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flew into Love Field once with the north wind howling from  a blue norther: Without going into great detail..... but I can say women were crying and men were sweating on our final approach. When the pilot finally got it stopped at the end of the runway he came over the speaker and said welcome to South Oak Cliff !! ( I knew what he was talking about) He got a standing ovation from the entire plane.

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2 hours ago, irishtexan said:

I was on this flight:

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/southwest-airlines-flight-chicago-austin-diverted-turbulence/54391/

We knew there was going to be turbulence because there were storms in the area. It was a bumpy ride almost right from takeoff. The pilots flew between two strong storm cells and the plane just dropped, nose first, and it really felt like the pilots had lost control of the plane. My wife was holding our infant son and she had to "catch" him mid-air. They grounded the plane in Kansas City to make sure there was no structural damage to the plane. We ended up waiting around for an hour and a half because one of the flight attendants would not get back on the plane. She got in a big argument with her superior in KC and basically said, "you can go ahead and fire me because I'm not getting back on that plane. I'm driving home from here." When we landed there were news cameras waiting to interview passengers. That really, really sucked. It was terrifying.

The first time. I ever flew was for work from Salt Lake City to Dallas. At some point hit major turbulent and the plane made huge drops. I was convinced we were all going to die. Needless to say, it was a loooong time before I flew again. 

Edited by SHOOTER12
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28 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Some of the injured had seat belts on. Yikes. 

Yeah, this sounds like terrifyingly bad turbulence. Worst I've experienced was on flight to Salt Lake City. We flew through a really bad storm. The plane felt like it was in a blender for 45 minutes or so. One of the flight attendants was crying. But that was a storm and at least we knew what was happening. Clear air turbulence is in many ways worse because it is unexpected and as a passenger you have no idea why it is happening. We a hit pocket like that on a flight to New York City. We had two large drops out of no where and lost something like 2,000 feet of altitude each time. That is as close to shitting myself as I've come on a flight. 

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2 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

Fuuucckkk. I'm somewhat of a nervous flier even though I travel a lot for work. The only thing that helps me deal with bad turbulence is watching the flight attendants. As long as they're chill, I can assure myself that everything is fine. If one of them started crying though? I'd fuckin lose it

Xanax 

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2 hours ago, Hermanator said:

Flew out of Pittsburgh in a near blizzard where the plane got de-iced 3 separate times before takeoff. 

Was not a relaxing flight for the first 30 min 

I was on a plane in the process of being de-iced when Continental #795 couldn't get airborne and stuck its nose in the drink.

Needless to say, 795 was the last flight out that evening.

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15 minutes ago, Jersey Man10 said:

“Your contract of carriage may provide a partial refund. Also, note the arbitration clause and venue in Botswana every other Tuesday at 3:30 a.m. local.   No Zoom arbitration attendance allowed.    Please contact customer service for further assistance.”

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3 hours ago, RPM said:

Been on some bumpy C130 flights where a couple guys lost their lunch. Chunky industrial stuff. 

You should've been with us five; six months ago.  Whoa--you talk about puke.

We ran into a hailstorm over the Sea of Japan, right?  Everybody's retching their guts out.  The pilot shot his lunch all over the windshield, and I barf on the radio.  Knocked it out completely.  And it wasn't that lightweight stuff, either.  It was that chunky industrial-weight puke.

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3 hours ago, RPM said:

Been on some bumpy C130 flights where a couple guys lost their lunch. Chunky industrial stuff. 

"That's my fetish" /Vic

Like most of you that flew/fly a lot, statistically you're gonna have some miserable shit but this one seemed pretty dammed bad.  As stated above, you look to the FA's for clues as how to serious/expected this is.  Sitting in the port single seat in first row of a classless Embraer/Bombardier coming back to Austin from chicago yers ago..  clear day, but hotter than usual.  FA gets off the phone and immediately straps in.  We're just a few feet from one another starting at each other.  Suddenly, the plane starts diving and I thought, "Please don't do it, please don't do it..."  And sure enough, she took out her crucifix, kissed  it, and made the sign of the cross.  I didn''t think we were gonna crash, but I thought we were all about to get really roughed up though given her sudden panic.  That one and some of the usual flights into Sky Harbor and vegas that that altitude dry air spins treats the plane like a toy.  Coming back at night once from Maui, we hit pretty tough turbulence.  Wife tells me to put on that tracker screen as that usually calms me down on shorter flights.  I flip it on and it's just us halfway between Maui and the West coast, just nothing but blue in every direction on the screen.  I get at that altitude, the ocean and dryland are gonna treat us the same, but it's still discomforting.  

Many years ago when talking about my nervousness on planes,  my uncle-in-law (very accomplished pilot) explained how much wing underneath and all the stats and shit.  I was like "I get it, I accept the science.  I'm just saying my heart rate and nervous system don't give a shit about that once the turbulence starts."  In 2008, he literally broke a Kalitta 747 cargo right in half on the runway in Brussels.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalitta_Air_Flight_207    thankfully, everybody was okay with minor injuries.  After that, we never talked about flying again.  Fucking birds.  /csb

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3 hours ago, Hermanator said:

Flew out of Pittsburgh in a near blizzard where the plane got de-iced 3 separate times before takeoff. 

Was not a relaxing flight for the first 30 min 

I’ve told this on TOS:  I flew out of Portland ME  winter either 95 or 96.  Blizzard starting to get going but still early in the storm. I stopped in the bar across from security at the time, got a bite to eat. Place is as dead except two pilots having beers.  
 

I get on this half full puddle jumper to Boston.  Goddamn if those two fucksticks don’t climb in the pilots cabin. They deiced us twice as well.  I’ve never been so fucking scared in my life. 

Edited by Bateshorn
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3 hours ago, SquishMitten said:

Fuuucckkk. I'm somewhat of a nervous flier even though I travel a lot for work. The only thing that helps me deal with bad turbulence is watching the flight attendants. As long as they're chill, I can assure myself that everything is fine. If one of them started crying though? I'd fuckin lose it

Me as well.  I fly quite a bit and any turbulence makes me very nervous.  I've never thought we were going to crash but the lack of control fucks with me.

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