Extreme turbulence caused injuries to at least 10 people aboard the American Airlines plane. Among the victims were three passengers and seven crew members.
Flight 759 took off from Athens to Philadelphia on Saturday around noon. Strong shaking started 30 minutes after takeoff and lasted about 15 seconds. The civil aviation authority said that at this point the aircraft flew over the Northern part of the Atlantic ocean.
On Board were 299 persons: 287 passengers and 12 crew members.
«About 5 seconds the turbulence was barely noticeable, and then the impression that the plane crashes,» — said one of the passengers Alex Ehmke.
«Children cried, the people sitting in front of us panicked and the flight attendants didn’t even have time to take their places» — recalls his fellow-sufferer Ian Smith.
Just minutes before the Board started to shake, the passengers just handed out the drinks, so the entire ceiling was filled with liquid.
Here’s the ceiling of the plane pic.twitter.com/lKO75JVhF2
— Jessica Huseman (@JessicaHuseman) August 5, 2017
In spite of the incident, a 15:10 flight landed safely at Philadelphia International airport, where the injured were hospitalized in local hospital. A stewardess was diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder.
Turbulence can be caused by several reasons, including the meeting of air masses of different temperature or turbulence from the wings ahead of the aircraft. The phenomenon is not a threat to flight safety.
