Several injured during Qantas Airbus A330-300 severe turbulence incident

A number of people on a Qantas flight were injured last night during what has been described as severe turbulence. The Airbus A330-300 aircraft, operating as Qantas Flight QF 68, was en route from Hong Kong to Perth. At the time of the incident, which happened about four hours after departure from Hong Kong, the aircraft was in cruise at 38,000 feet over Borneo.

There were 13 crew members and 206 passengers on board Flight QF 68. Following the incident, the aircraft continued on to Perth, where it landed safely.

Qantas has issued a statement about the incident, saying that the injured included six passengers and one cabin crew member. According to the airline, the seven inured were taken to hospitals after the aircraft landed in Perth, and have since been released.

News reports about the incident, quoting passengers, said the aircraft dropped suddenly causing those who were not restrained to be thrown from their seats. Some passengers reportedly hit their heads on overhead compartments with enough force to crack the plastic. News media described back and neck injuries, and indicated that some of the injured were children.

Mr. David Epstein, speaking to the press on behalf of Qantas, said:

"The aircraft most likely encountered what is known as convective turbulence, which led to it rapidly gaining around 800 feet in altitude before returning to its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet.

"This convective turbulence is not normally visible to weather radar. At top of descent into Perth, the Captain explained this to passengers and also referred to the radar being designed to detect moisture but not ice crystals.

"The flight crew responded quickly to this incident in line with procedure and based on their regular simulator training.

"Some media reports have suggested the aircraft was travelling through thunderstorms at the time of the incident. There may have been thunderstorms in the vicinity, but there is nothing to suggest the aircraft was actually flying through any storm activity."

The incident has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

[Photo Source]

Turbulence injures Northwest flight attendant and several passengers

Eight passengers and one flight attendant were injured aboard a Northwest Airlines A330-300 aircraft that encountered turbulence above the Pacific Ocean, near Midway Island, earlier today. Four of the injured required medical treatment, including the flight attendant, who was hospitalized.

The incident occurred while Northwest Flight 22 was en route from Tokyo-Narita International Airport to Honolulu. When the aircraft arrived at Honolulu International Airport just after 08:00 AM local time this morning, January 22, 2009, a flight attendant who had suffered head and neck injuries was taken to a hospital, where she remains. Her condition is described as serious but stable, according to spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Transportation, quoted in media reports from Honolulu.

One passenger with a hip injury and another with arm and neck injuries were taken to a Honolulu hospital for treatment. A third passenger's injuries were treated at the airport. Five more passengers sustained minor injuries, such as bumps and bruises, that did not require medical attention.

[Photo Source]

Qantas Flight QF72 In-flight Upset: What happened inside the cabin

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued a preliminary report about an accident last month involving a Qantas A330-300 aircraft in which a number of people were injured. The aircraft, operating as Qantas Flight QF72, was en route from Singapore to Perth, Australia with 10 crew and 303 passengers on board when it experienced two successive in-flight upsets. The aircraft diverted to Learmonth, Western Australia, where it made an emergency landing. One flight attendant and at least 13 passengers were seriously injured and many others experienced less serious injuries, according to the ATSB. Most of the injuries involved passengers who were seated without their seatbelts fastened.

While the newly released report focuses primarily on what happened on the flight deck, and the results of the ATSB's early examination of systems data from the accident aircraft, the report devotes several pages to what happened in the passenger cabin during the emergency, damage to the cabin, and injuries sustained by crew members and passengers.

The upset happened while the aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet. In describing the sequence of events, the ATSB report notes that at the time the emergency began, the first officer (F/O) had just left the flight deck for a scheduled rest break. The captain and second officer (S/O) were on the flight deck when things began to go awry. The captain asked the S/O to call the F/O back to the flight deck, and while the S/O was on the interphone asking the flight attendant to send the F/O back to the flight deck, "the aircraft abruptly pitched nose-down."

The aircraft descended 650 ft. The crew described the movement as "very abrupt, but smooth. It did not have the characteristics of a typical turbulence-related event and the aircraft’s movement was solely in the pitching plane."

The seatbelt sign was then illuminated and the S/O made a public address for passengers and crew to return to their seats and fasten their seatbelts immediately. A few minutes after the first event, the aircraft commenced a second uncommanded pitch-down event. This time the aircraft descended about 400 ft.

The ATSB report says [pp. 2-4]:

The captain announced to the cabin for passengers and crew to remain seated with seatbelts fastened. The second officer made another call on the cabin interphone to get the first officer back to the flight deck. The first officer returned to the flight deck at 1248. After discussing the situation, the crew decided that they needed to land the aircraft as soon as possible. They were not confident that further pitch-down events would not occur. They were also aware that there had been some injuries in the cabin, but at that stage they were not aware of the extent of the injuries.

[The crew then made an] emergency broadcast to air traffic control, advising that they had experienced ‘flight control computer problems’ and that some people had been injured. They requested a clearance to divert to and track direct to Learmonth, WA. Clearance to divert and commence descent was received from air traffic control.

...The flight crew spoke to a flight attendant by interphone to get further information on the extent of the injuries. The flight crew advised the cabin crew that, due to the nature of the situation, they did not want them to get out of their seats, but to use the cabin interphones to gather the information.

After the cabin crew advised the flight deck of several serious injuries, the crew declared a MAYDAY and made a emergency landing at Learmonth.

Injuries

Quoting again from the ATSB report [p. 5]:

Initial information provided to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) was that 14 people were taken by air ambulance to Perth. Injuries were considered serious, but not life threatening, and included concussion and broken bones. In addition, up to 30 other people attended hospital with possible concussion, minor lacerations and fractures, with up to a further 30 or so people with minor bruises and stiff necks who did not need to attend hospital.

Subsequent information indicates that one flight attendant and at least 13 passengers were admitted to hospital. The nature and extent of the injuries varied considerably, including injuries listed above and spinal injuries.

At the time of the first in-flight upset event, three flight attendants and the first officer were standing in the forward galley and one flight attendant had just left that galley. The first officer and two of the attendants received minor injuries and the other was uninjured. Four of the flight attendants were preparing to leave the crew rest area (four seats located near the Left 3 door), and all received minor injuries. A flight attendant standing in the rear galley received serious injuries.

Information has been obtained from over 10 per cent of the passengers to date. Based on this information, almost all of the passengers who were seated without seatbelts fastened received either serious or minor injuries during the first in-flight upset. Many of these passengers impacted the ceiling panels. Most of the passengers who had their seatbelts fastened were uninjured, although some received minor injuries. Passengers who were standing at the time of the first in-flight upset received either serious or minor injuries.

Damage

There was no structural damage to the aircraft, however the ATSB report had this to say about the passenger cabin [pp. 5-6]:

Inspection of the aircraft interior revealed damage mainly in the centre and rear sections of the passenger cabin. The level of damage varied significantly. Much of the damage was in the area of the personal service units above each passenger seat, and adjacent panels. The damage was typically consistent with that resulting from an impact by a person or object. There was evidence of damage above approximately 10 per cent of the seats in the centre section of the cabin, and above approximately 20 per cent of the seats in the rear section of the cabin. In addition, some ceiling panels above the cabin aisle-ways had evidence of impact damage, and many had been dislodged from their fixed position.

Oxygen masks had deployed from above nine of the seats where there had been damage to overhead personal service units or adjacent panels. Some of the cabin portable oxygen cylinders and some of the aircraft first aid kits had been deployed.

The report includes photos of damage to the ceiling panels above passenger seats, and in the aisle.

Here is the link to the entire document, which is worth reading: AO-2008-070: Preliminary Report - ATSB, Nov. 14, 2008 (43-page 'pdf' file)

RELATED: Click here to view all posts about Qantas Flt QF 72 on Aircrew Buzz.

 

Dozens injured in Qantas Airbus A330 'sudden in-flight upset'

Dozens of people were injured earlier today, October 7, 2008, when a Qantas A330-300 aircraft experienced what the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) referred to as a sudden in-flight upset. Qantas described the event as a sudden change of altitude. According to the ATSB, the crew declared a MAYDAY and diverted to Learmonth, near Exmouth, in Western Australia, where they made an emergency landing at about 13:45 local time.

The aircraft (registration VH-QPA), operating as Qantas Flight QF72, was cruising in level flight en route from Singapore to Perth with 303 passengers and 10 crew on board at the time of the incident. An ATSB media release said that the event resulted in injuries to a number of cabin crew and passengers, primarily in the rear of the aircraft. The ATSB said: "Early reports indicate that three cabin crew and approximately 30 passengers sustained injuries, including about 15 with serious injuries, namely broken bones and lacerations."

The injured were taken to Exmouth Hospital for treatment. Several news media reports said that some of the more seriously injured were later flown to Royal Perth Hospital by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Qantas sent two aircraft -- a Boeing 767 and a Boeing 717 -- to Learmonth from Perth to collect passengers and crew.

Best wishes for a speedy and full recovery to all those who were injured.

UPDATE Oct. 8, 2008: Both the Qantas and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) issued statements today with a few more details about the events on Qantas Flight QF72, which the ATSB has now officially classified as an accident: ATSB statement; Qantas statement.

China Airlines cabin crew injured in turbulence incident near Bali

A number of passengers and cabin crew were injured on Saturday, September 20, 2008, when a China Airlines Boeing 747-400 aircraft encountered severe turbulence while en route from Taipei to Denpasar, Bali. The aircraft, operating as China Airlines Flight CI 687, was in Malaysian airspace when clear air turbulence caused it to drop several thousand feet. The incident occurred about 30 minutes prior to landing, according to news reports.

At least 30 people among the 339 passengers and 19 crew on board were injured. The Taiwan News quoted a China Airlines spokesman who said that six people with serious injuries, including four cabin crew members, were admitted to a hospital in Bali for treatment. Although the extent of their injuries has not been confirmed, several news reports mentioned skeletal fractures and neck injuries.

Continental Airlines flight attendants injured in turbulence

On the afternoon of Monday, June 30, 2008, three Continental Airlines flight attendants were injured during the cruise phase of a flight between Houston and Fort Lauderdale. The incident happened when Continental Flight COA1448, a Boeing 737-300 aircraft, encountered turbulence at 31,000 ft above the Gulf of Mexico.

The Sun-Sentinel identified the injured flight attendants as Newark-based crew, and reported that their injuries happened when they either fell or hit their heads. News reports, quoting Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles, said that the injured flight attendants were first treated at the gate area after landing, and then taken to Broward General Medical Center for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. No passengers were injured in the incident.

[Photo Source]

NetJets flight attendant sues Jennifer Lopez over dog bite, injuries

A former NetJets flight attendant filed suit in New York late last week against Jennifer Lopez and her company, Nuyorican Productions, Inc., alleging that a dog belonging to the actress attacked her during a flight between Farmingdale, NY and Burbank, CA on July, 3, 2006. The flight attendant says that the dog, a German shepherd named Floyd, lunged at her as she passed by in the passenger cabin of the Gulfstream IV, and bit her pant leg. When the flight attendant twisted to get away from the dog, she fell, injuring her back.

According to documents filed in court, the flight attendant began treatment for back pain within days of the incident, but was unable to achieve relief from her pain. As a result of the injuries, the flight attendant had to have major surgery on her back in April of 2007, and she continues to undergo treatment.

The lawsuit alleges that the flight attendant's injuries are permanent and will require additional treatment. She has been unable to return to work. She is seeking $5 million in compensation. The flight attendant's attorney was quoted in a number of news reports such as this one in the New York Daily News, saying she is not out to capitalize on J. Lo's celebrity, and had made attempts to settle the case that were ignored. NetJets is not named in the suit.

Predictably, this story quickly went viral, spreading like wildfire around the Internet, especially on celebrity gossip websites. Once that happens, stories begin to mutate and become sensationalized, like an earlier story about Jennifer Lopez and a flight attendant that I wrote about  nearly two years ago.

If you are interested in the details of this incident, I suggest that you read the actual court documents (8-page 'pdf' file), posted to the Internet by TMZ.com, and that you take many of the accounts in the entertainment media with a grain of salt.

My sympathies are with the injured flight attendant.

Passengers injured after seatbelts fail on Southwest plane

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently issued a preliminary report about an instance of severe turbulence during which one flight attendant and five passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight were injured. The report states that "two of the five injured passengers were occupying seats where the seatbelt fittings failed and separated."

Yikes!

The incident happened on the afternoon of February 24, 2008, when the Boeing 737-300 aircraft, operating as Southwest Airlines Flight SWA 2809, encountered severe turbulence during descent for landing at McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, NV. The scheduled flight, which had five crew members and 137 passengers on board, had originated at Ontario, CA.

More details, quoted from the NTSB report:

According to information provided by Southwest Airlines, the flight was descending into Las Vegas at an altitude of 11,400 feet above mean sea level (msl) when it encountered severe turbulence. The captain communicated with Southwest Operations to arrange for paramedics to meet the airplane at the gate in Las Vegas. The flight continued and landed without further incident. Medical personnel met the airplane as requested, and the treated the injured passengers and flight attendant, classifying their injuries as minor.

A preliminary review of the flight recorder data provided by Southwest Airlines disclosed that the airplane experienced a vertical acceleration minimum of approximately -0.761 G, followed 2 seconds later by a positive peak of approximately +1.762 G. [NTSB ID: LAX08IA065]

That must have been quite a ride, and it's good to know that the injuries were considered to be minor. In all the years I have been following accident and incident reports from the NTSB, I believe this is the first time I have seen a mention of seatbelt failure contributing to passenger injury during turbulence. Anyone recall any other instances in recent memory?