24 injured as JetBlue flight hits heavy turbulence

Passengers aboard a JetBlue Airways flight from Boston to Sacramento landed at their final destination on Friday early morning (August 12) after a turbulent journey delayed their scheduled arrival by several hours. They described the moment their aircraft ran into turbulence as “harrowing” and frightening.”

“They had said ‘put your seatbelts on’—this happens all the time, so, didn’t think anything about it and then, I don’t know, maybe 10 minutes later, all of a sudden there was quite a big of a shake and then all of us—whoa!And then, the plane just could have dropped and whoa -and stuff flew. I got a bag of chips on my lap and my shoe went backwards and computers were up,” said traveler Candace Sousa.

JetBlue Airways said 22 passengers and two crew members were injured when its flight from Boston to Sacramento, California flew into bad weather.

“The storage thing up on top opened up completely, just for a second, and flew out. A bunch of people got hurt, bunch of stuff fell down all over them, hurt people shoulders. A bunch of stewardesses got hurt. Someone right in front of me had a panic attack. I have an anxiety disorder myself which is pretty hard,” said traveler Charlie Judkins.

“I felt like I was on the Tower of Terror (amusement park ride). We just dropped like that without a warning and a few people were injured. I am an emergency room nurse, so I helped one of the doctors and – kinda minor injuries, but big deal for everbody else. It was quiet frightening,” said traveler Eileen Lynch.

Flight 0429 was diverted and landed safely on Thursday night in Rapid City, South Dakota, where the injured were taken to the hospital, the U.S. budget carrier said in a statement.

The airline said it had sent a team to assist the injured and a replacement flight had been sent to Rapid City to fly passengers to Sacramento.

In May, eight passengers were injured when a JetBlue flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Orlando experienced turbulence.