A cloud rose vertically like a column of smoke in a matter of seconds before an Air Hawaiian flight last month hit severe turbulence and injured 25 people on board, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
captain Trip Dec 18th From Phoenix to Honolulu he told investigators that flight conditions were smooth with clear skies when the cloud rose in front of the plane and there was no time to change course, the report said.
Call the chief flight attendant and tell her there may be a disturbance. Within one to three seconds, the report stated, “the aircraft experienced severe turbulence.”
Shortly thereafter, the lead flight attendant informed the crew that there were multiple casualties in the passenger cabin.
Of the 291 passengers and crew on the plane, 25 were injured, including four passengers and two crew members who were seriously injured, according to the report. The plane sustained minor damage.
Tiffany Reyes, one of the hospitalized passengers, said the next day she had just returned to her seat from the bathroom and was about to buckle up when the flight covered.
In an instant, Reyes said, she found herself on the corridor floor, staring at the collapsed ceiling panels and the cracked bathroom sign that was hanging.
“I asked everyone around me, ‘Is that me?'” Reyes said. “They said I seemed to have climbed onto the ceiling and hit the floor.”
Reyes said that she initially thought something had hit the plane and it was crashing, that they were going to die, because she had never experienced anything violent on the plane.
“This is the most terrifying experience I’ve had in my 40 years of life,” said Reyes.
Hawaiian Airlines chief operating officer John Snook said at the time that such a disruption was unusual, noting that the airline had not experienced anything like it in recent history. The seat belts sign was on at that time.
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