Hawaiian Airlines flight turbulence, which injured dozens, was due to strange cloud behavior: report
A cloud shot up vertically like a plume of smoke in seconds before a Hawaiian Airlines flight encountered severe turbulence last month, injuring 25 people on board, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday.
The captain of the Dec. 18 flight from Phoenix to Honolulu told investigators that flight conditions were smooth with clear skies when cloud billowed ahead of the plane and there was no time to change course, the report said. He called the senior flight attendant and told her there might be turbulence. Within one to three seconds, the plane “entered violent turbulence,” the report said.
Shortly thereafter, the senior flight attendant informed the crew that there had been multiple injuries in the cabin.
Of the 291 passengers and crew on board, 25 were injured, including four passengers and two crew members who were seriously injured, the report said. The plane was slightly damaged.
Tiffany Reyes, one of the passengers taken to hospitals, said the next day that she had just returned to her seat from the bathroom and was about to buckle her seat belt when the plane dived.
Immediately, Reyes said she found herself on the hallway floor staring at collapsed ceiling panels and a broken bathroom sign that was hanging.
“I asked everyone around me, ‘Was that me?’ said Reyes. “They said I seemed to have hit the ceiling and hit the floor.”
Reyes said she initially thought something had hit the plane and it was crashing, and briefly thought they were dying because she had never experienced anything so violent on a flight.
“This is the most terrifying experience I’ve had in all 40 years of my life,” Reyes said.
Hawaiian Airlines Chief Operating Officer Jon Snook said at the time that such turbulence was unusual, noting that the airline had not experienced anything like it in recent history. The seat belt sign was on at the time, although some of the injured were not wearing them, he said.
It happened about 40 minutes before landing in Honolulu, according to the report.
The report contains factual information but no probable cause. This is usually included in the final report, which can take a year or two to complete.
An airline spokesman declined to comment on the report Friday as the NTSB investigation is ongoing.
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