Flight makes emergency landing with 30 injured as pictures show ceiling torn off (original) (raw)

Boeing flight makes emergency landing with 30 injured as horror pics show plane ceiling torn off

At least 30 passengers were injured after turbulence struck a transatlantic flight from Spain to Uruguay on Monday, with horrifying video showing customers launched from their seats as one got stuck in an overhead bin

At least 30 were injured after a bout of harrowing turbulence nearly destroyed a transatlantic flight from Spain to Uruguay on Monday

Horrifying video shows the moment nasty turbulence rocked an Air Europa flight from Spain to Uruguay, injuring at least 30 people as one man could be seen kicking his legs, having gotten stuck in an overhead bin.

The footage, posted to X by user @MarielaJodal, shows passengers flying out of their seats, into the aisles and around the cabin as the turbulence wrought havoc on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

Anxiously chattering passengers attempted to assess the damage as the flight remained in the air. The video dramatically panned to the man stuck in the overhead bin as other people were seen on the floor of the cabin in lifeless heaps in the aisles.

Shortly after the turbulence, the plane reportedly made an emergency landing in Natal, a city in the northeast of Brazil. Air Europa said in a statement obtained by the New York Post, "The plane has landed normally and the injuries of varying degrees that were recorded are already being treated."

Other harrowing footage from the flight showed the ceiling tiles of the plane ripped off amid the turbulence, with oxygen masks falling from damaged compartments as at least one seat was completely destroyed.

One passenger aboard Flight UX045 told local Uruguayan outlet El Observador that he had simply been enjoying his flight back from a tour in Europe when the captain warned passengers to return to their seats and to buckle up amid expected turbulence.

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The ceiling tiles of the plane were ripped off in the turbulence

Norys, the passenger, told the outlet, "A long time after that, there was a very, very slight turbulence. It was barely felt. And from one moment to the next, the plane abruptly fell, and we all went up."

He added that those who didn't have their seatbelts on "flew" while some "remained hooked to the roof" for a while before the horrifying incident calmed down. Another passenger, Juan, said the incident felt lie something out of a "horror movie" as he said it felt like a near-death experience.

"The sensation was one of terror, feeling that you are falling and that it does not end," he told the publication. "And you are aware that you are falling at an incalculable speed, and you felt that it ended there, that you died."

The injured were reportedly being treated at the Monsenhor Walfredo Gurgel Hospital in Natal, and transportation had been arranged for them to return to Montevideo, where the flight was headed, Uruguay's Foreign Ministry said. Those who didn't opt to take the bus provided by the airline would be picked up by a new plane slated to leave Madrid on Monday.