Delta flight diverted, 25 sent to hospital after 'significant' turbulence: Airline
Twenty-five people aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam were hospitalized after the flight encountered "significant" turbulence and was diverted to Minneapolis-St. Paul, the airline said.
Delta Air Lines Flight 56 landed safely at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport shortly before 8 p.m. local time Wednesday, the airline said. The flight was operating on an Airbus A33-900 with 275 passengers and 13 crew members on board.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Fire Department and paramedics responded to the gate to provide initial medical attention, the Metropolitan Airports Commission said.
The airline said 25 of those on board, including seven crew members, were taken to the hospital "for evaluation and care." All have since been released, the airline said Thursday.
Passengers will continue on to Amsterdam from Minneapolis-St. Paul on a special flight Thursday evening, Delta said.
William Webster, a passenger aboard the flight, told ABC News in an interview that the turbulence came about 45 minutes into the flight and was a "harrowing experience."
He said the plane experienced "severe turbulence" for about a 3-to-5-minute period.
"There were people screaming. There was a woman crying," Webster told ABC News. "I saw phones fly in the air. I witnessed the wine beverage cart get thrown into the ceiling of the aircraft and glass bottles shatter everywhere."
He described the experience as being on a roller coaster ride.
"I would describe the sensation as if you were on, like, a 300-foot-tall roller coaster drop where you come completely out of the seat, and the safety strapper bar is holding you into the roller coaster car," Webster said.
Leeann Nash, who was on the flight with her husband, told Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP that dinner service had just started on the flight when the turbulence came out of nowhere.
"There was actually no warning. It was a very abrupt, hard hit," Nash said. "If you didn't have your seat belt on -- everyone that didn't -- they hit the ceiling, and then they fell to the ground, and the carts also hit the ceiling and fell to the ground, and people were injured, and it happened several times, so it was really scary."
Nash said there were "glass bottles flying around."
"And you know, those carts are very heavy, so we were fortunate that we had seat belts on at the time, but we still saw cellphones flying around quite a bit," Nash added. "But I will hand it to the flight attendants, they were incredibly calm, very well trained and very responsive."
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
