Oxygen masks fall during turbulence in the Air Canada AC 33 flight while in mid-Pacific, around 1500 km from Hawaii according to source, July 11, 2019 in this image obtained from social media. Australian Band – Hurricane Fall via REUTERS
July 11, 2019
MONTREAL (Reuters) – An Air Canada flight was diverted on Thursday to Hawaii after a sudden case of severe turbulence left 35 customers with minor injuries, the carrier said in a statement.
Flight AC33, carrying 269 passengers and 15 crew, was flying from Vancouver to Sydney, Australia, when the Boeing 777 aircraft “encountered unforecasted and sudden turbulence approximately two hours past Hawaii,” the carrier said. The plane was diverted to Honolulu and landed at 12:45 pm EST.
“As a precaution, medical personnel are on standby to examine passengers in Honolulu,” the carrier said.
The carrier’s initial reports were of 25 people with minor injuries.
A case of severe turbulence in June on a flight from Kosovo to France was captured on video, showing a flight attendant hitting the ceiling and another praying.
In another case, 29 people were injured after a Turkish Airlines flight encountered severe turbulence on its approach to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in March.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert; Editing by Alistair Bell and James Dalgleish)
