By Lindsey Bever, The Washington Post
At least 22 passengers and two crew members on a JetBlue flight were taken to a hospital for evaluation Thursday night after intense turbulence forced the plane to make an unexpected landing, according to a statement from the airline.
JetBlue flight 429 was en route from Boston to Sacramento when the plane hit turbulence and people started “flying out of their seat belts and hitting their head on the ceiling,” one passenger told CNN.
The flight was diverted to Rapid City, S.D., where passengers and crew members were taken to a hospital, JetBlue said in a statement to The Washington Post. All 24 were treated for minor injuries, Rapid City Regional Hospital told NBC News.
“It was very scary,” Rhonda Renee, a passenger, told CNN.
Rocky rides are not uncommon, according to Time magazine.
According to the magazine:
“Turbulence is when unexpected air movement results in bumps and jolts to an airplane. It can be caused by wind, thunderstorms, atmospheric pressure, and proximity to mountains. It can also occur when the sky appears clear (Clear Air Turbulence – or C.A.T.) when cold and warm air comes together, normally at altitudes of 7,000 to 12,000 meters. As warm air is lighter than cool air, it rises while the cool air descends. When a plane encounters this varying airflow – also known as air pockets – it can feel bumpy, even though it looks calm outside the window.”
The Federal Aviation Administration reports that from 1980 through 2008, there have been 234 turbulence accidents on board U.S. airliners, causing nearly 300 serious injuries and three deaths. By comparison, in 2014, some 2.34 million people were injured in motor vehicle accidents in the U.S. and 32,675 died, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The FAA urges passengers to keep seat belts fastened during takeoff and landing as well as any other time the seat belt sign is on.
During the turbulence Thursday night, JetBlue passenger Victor Rosales told NBC News via a Twitter message, “It got really rocky.”
“We felt like a giant hand hit the plane,” he said. “I saw stuff fly everywhere.”
Passenger Casey Corcoran told ABC affiliate WCVB that the plane dropped.
“It was almost like a bang, like we hit a wall and just dropped straight down,” Corcoran, from Milton, Mass., told the news station. “There was stuff in the aisles, you had people crying.”
“People were floating,” Rhonda Lynam, a passenger from Pebble Beach, Calif., told ABC News. “All of a sudden, it was as if you’re on an elevator, 50 stories high, and it goes out of control. Then you hit the bottom.”
Lynam said people slammed into the ceiling and overhead compartments.
“People were being tossed around like rag dolls,” she said. “Everybody was crying and screaming. The plane was like a disaster.”
Passenger Derek Lindahl, from Sacramento, told CNN that the flight crew did their best in a bad situation. “Even though all flight crew were injured in some way, as far as I know, they all maintained their calm and never cracked,” he said.
JetBlue sent a replacement plane to South Dakota to take the passengers to Sacramento, according to the airline. The airline has not released any further information.
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