Air passengers bound for Uruguay suffered a terrifying incident that left dozens injured when an Air Europa Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner encountered severe turbulence on a flight from Madrid, Spain to Montevideo on Monday. And in the ensuing chaos, a passenger reportedly became trapped above an overhead bin.
Flight UX045 was forced to make an emergency landing at Natal Airport in northeastern Brazil just after 2:30 a.m. The Rio Grande do Norte state health secretariat said about 30 passengers were taken to local hospitals in Natal with minor abrasions or orthopedic injuries.
“Our flight to Montevideo was diverted to Natal due to severe turbulence,” Air Europa said in a statement via Newsweek“The plane landed normally and the injured are already being treated.”
Shocking photos and videos posted to social media by a passenger, Mariela Jodal, showed the interior cabin in complete disarray, with ceiling panels torn off and oxygen masks hanging over the seats. Outside the cabin window, a team of ambulances could be seen waiting to transport injured passengers.
“AirEuropa flight UX 045 Madrid-Montevideo, with several injuries due to very strong turbulence,” Jodal wrote in a post on X. In a follow-up post, she criticized the airline for leaving them “stranded.”
“Air Europa absent! After the crash of flight UX 045, the crew left, leaving us stranded at Natal airport,” she wrote. “They are not giving us any information on how we will get back to Montevideo.”
Shocking video taken immediately after the turbulence shows the passenger pinned above the overhead bin, likely in a section of the plane’s ceiling, with his feet sticking out. TMZ According to reports, fellow passengers helped untie the man and get him back into his seat.
“Those who didn’t have a seat belt flew and some remained hooked to the ceiling. It lasted about 3.5 seconds,” a passenger from Uruguay told the local newspaper The Observer“A long time later there was a slight turbulence, barely noticeable, and suddenly the plane crashed abruptly and we all took off.”
The latest is the latest in a series of serious turbulence problems on commercial flights. One man was killed and dozens injured when a Singapore Airlines flight from London suddenly collapsed in mid-air due to extreme turbulence in May.
Unfortunately, research has shown that the effects of climate change are likely to make severe turbulence more common in the future.
