At least 40 passengers were injured when an Air Europa flight from Madrid to Montevideo hit strong turbulence, prompting an emergency landing in Brazil, reported news agency AFP.
The health secretariat of Brazil's Rio Grande do Norte state told AFP that those injured were taken to hospitals and clinics in Natal for treatment of “abrasions and minor traumas”. Of them, eleven remain hospitalised.
30 passengers were injured after a flight from Madrid to Uruguay was hit by “strong turbulence” and had to make an emergency landing in Brazil, Spanish airline Air Europa said on Monday.
“Our flight UX045 bound for Montevideo has been diverted to the Natal airport (in Brazil) due to strong turbulence,” Air Europa said in a post on X.
“The plane has landed normally and those who sustained different types of injuries are already being treated.”
The aircraft hit by turbulence was a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. The plane has the capacity to hold up to 339 passengers, according to Air Europa’s website.
Damage on the inside of the plane that was forced to land in Brazil after turbulence.
Damage on the inside of the plane that was forced to land in Brazil after turbulence. Courtesy Pichi Pastosa
“From one moment to the next, the plane destabilized and went into a dive. The people who didn’t have seat belts went up in the air and hit the ceiling, and they got hurt – those who had seat belts on, not so much,” one of the passengers, Maximiliano, told Reuters.
Another passenger, Stevan, told the news agency: “There are passengers with fractures and injuries to their arms, faces, and legs. There are about 30 people injured. It was a pretty horrible feeling; we thought we were going to die there, but thank God it didn’t happen.”
