‘Calm and professional’ flight attendants praised as Shanghai-Beijing flight suffers dramatic altitude drop. Passengers and crew injured during terrifying bout of turbulence which left A330 aisles littered with flying pillows and water bottles in an account that went viral on Weibo. — SCMP
Terrified passengers and crew on an Air China flight from Shanghai to Beijing have told how they were thrown about like rag dolls when their plane hit severe turbulence which left several people injured.
The A330 aircraft took off at 3.24pm on July 10 from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and landed at the Beijing Capital International Airport as scheduled at 5.18pm.
Turbulence hit about 40 minutes before landing, passengers told the People’s Daily.
One of them, Xing Lida, a Beijing-based palaeobiologist, or scientist who studies fossils, said the first half of the flight was normal, but less than an hour before landing, while many passengers were out of their seats to go to the toilet, the plane experienced a sudden drop in altitude.
“We were scared and tried to get ourselves properly seated as soon as possible,” Xing wrote on Weibo.
“A couple of seconds later there was another fierce descent which threw a passenger who was not in her seat and a flight attendant who was helping her at the time flying up to the ceiling,” said Xing.
A hanging exit sign was smashed and a part of the ceiling was damaged, exposing pipes and electrical cables, Xing also said on Weibo.
“The flight attendant’s waist was injured and her hand was bleeding. The passenger’s head and feet were also injured,” the scholar was later quoted by the newspaper as saying.
“I’d like to give high praise to the flight attendants of Air China. They must have been terrified, but they put the protection of passengers first. After the turbulence was over, they treated the injured passenger. They were professional and calm,” Xing added.
The airline confirmed that the plane encountered a clear sky turbulence and said its pilots and crew members dealt with the situation according to safety rules.
“During this process, a passenger and a flight attendant were injured. After the plane landed, we sent staff with them to hospital to receive medical treatment. We send our best wishes to the injured passenger and the employee,” the company said in a statement.
Other passengers told the newspaper that pillows and water bottles were tossed into the air during the incident.
Newspapers, small bags and paper notices were scattered across the aisles, according to photos taken by a passenger and circulated online.
When the plane landed, all the passengers applauded spontaneously.
A man, surnamed Yu, who was sitting in the middle of the aircraft, said he was suspended in mid-air during the turbulence.
“It was more frightening than any words an describe,” he was quoted by Jimu News as saying.
A story about the incident on Weibo has been viewed 200 million times.
“I just wonder if there have been any plane crashes because of turbulence. I’d like to give this knowledge to my parents. After they took a flight which was hit by serious turbulence, they dared not travel by air again,” one social media commenter said.
Another person added: “Fasten your seat belt tightly. Don’t loosen it unless you need to go to the toilet.” – South China Morning Post
