More than 30 passengers were treated for injuries, the local health agency said Report. Their team coordinated with the embassies and representatives of the travelers’ countries of Spain, Uruguay, Israel, Germany and Bolivia. The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the nature of the passengers’ injuries.
scenes Shared on social media The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner suffered damage to overhead compartments, panels and seats. Passengers who spoke to local media described a terrifying scene as the plane began to land.
It was like a “horror movie,” one traveler told Uruguay the observer Newspaper. Those not wearing seat belts were thrown into the air, and some crashed into roofs, the newspaper reported.
“The feeling was terrifying, the feeling that you were falling and it would never end. You knew you were falling at an incalculable speed. You felt it was going to end there, you were going to die,” another passenger told the paper.
“The pilots told us to fasten our seat belts because there might be turbulence. They told us it was a situation they couldn’t predict on radar,” said passenger Larisa Gutierrez said New newsBrazilian media.
Turbulence can occur unexpectedly, the Federal Aviation Administration Atmospheric pressure can be caused by jet streams, wind around mountains, cold or warm weather fronts, or thunderstorms. Wearing seat belts and paying attention to flight safety announcements can reduce the risk of injury during turbulence, the company says.
According to FAA data, injuries from turbulence are relatively rare. In 2022, 17 people suffered serious concussion injuries; By 2021, there were six, the FAA says.
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In May, a 73-year-old man was killed and 18 others hospitalized when a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore encountered turbulence. A few days later, 12 people were injured when a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin crashed.
Recent events have led to questions about whether climate change is increasing the risk of turbulence on airplanes. While many studies suggest a warming planet will create more turbulence, weather forecasters are getting better at predicting it, which experts say could help airlines avoid rough skies.
Ana Vanessa Herrero and Rachel Bennett contributed to this report.
