At least 25 people were injured after a plane was forced into an emergency landing because of severe turbulence.
A routine Delta Airlines flight from Utah to Amsterdam descended into chaos when the Airbus A330-900 suddenly plunged in the sky.
Flight DL56 had departed Salt Lake City International Airport at about 4.30pm Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) on Wednesday when it violently fell over Minnesota.
It landed at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport just two hours into its nine-hour journey, at around 7.45pm Central Daylight Time (CDT).
There were 275 passengers and 13 crew members on board, according to reports.
Emergency services met the plane to "evaluate customers and crew" following its unscheduled landing, with 25 passengers then transported to nearby hospitals for care.
Bernard Lavelle, founder of BL Aviation Consulting, said the incident would have been “scary for passengers”.
He told Metro: “Sometimes turbulence is just there, and the most difficult one is clear air turbulence – you are going through a clear sky and suddenly you hit turbulence and you don’t see it, so that can be challenging.
“If the pilots can see the turbulence, they will put the seatbelt sign on and get people to return to their seats, and if it is severe, get the crew to sit down as well. But pilots don’t always pick it up on radar or haven’t had that information.”
Scary for passengers
Mr Lavelle added that there has been “an increase in turbulence” across the world due to climate change.
In a statement, Delta said that it is "working with customers to support their immediate needs".
“There is a lot of impact on flights,” he said. “It is becoming more usual than unusual, which is frustrating, but it is still a very small number of flights to put it into context.”
Since 2009, there have been more than 200 severe injuries caused by turbulence — where an individual has been admitted to hospital 48 hours or longer — in the United States, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Estimates based on official statistics show that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence each year.
