Passengers traveling from Arizona to Hawaii on a Hawaiian Airlines flight said that their “life flashed before their eyes” and that they thought they were on a rollercoaster when their Airbus A330 hit sudden and severe turbulence.
Kaylee Reyes was traveling with her mother, Tiffany Ann Reyes. Tiffany had just returned from the restroom and had not refastened her seatbelt when she was suddenly flung into the air with her head hitting the ceiling of the plane.
Explaining the terrifying situation, Kaylee told Hawaii News Now, “The plane shook and then went into a sudden drop, kind of how you would if you were on a rollercoaster. My mom wasn’t buckled and she flew up and hit the ceiling, then hit the floor.”
“There were several other people that hit their head. When we landed, paramedics came and had to wheel people out. Quite a few people had lacerations on their head and blood dripping down,” she continued.
The flight from Phoenix to Honolulu was only about half an hour from landing when it passed through what has been described as a ‘rare’ pocket of turbulence.
The drop was so intense and sudden that it sent 20 people to the emergency room with 11 of them being hospitalized with a variety of injuries.
Among those hurt were three flight attendants, several children and a 14-month-old baby. Nine others suffered from minor injuries.
Other passengers feared for their lives such as Jazmin Bitanga who was flying home for the holidays when she said, “My life flashed before my eyes. I was scared.”
At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Jon Snook, the Chief Operating Officer of Hawaiian Airlines admitted that it was the “worst case of turbulence” that he had ever encountered during his seven years with the airline.
“Sometimes, these air pockets occur with no warning. It’s rare to have that level of extreme turbulence. It was a very extreme case of mid-air turbulence,” he said.
Many passengers received a variety of injuries, including serious head trauma, cuts, and bruises when they crashed into the plane’s ceiling panels and overhead bins.
So much so that one person is believed to have broken their neck due to the impact on the ceiling of the aircraft.
