Turbulence was so bad on a US Airways jet on Sunday that six people were injured.
The Airbus A330 was carrying 265 passengers and 10 crew members on board when it took off from Philadelphia International airport. It was plane heading to Orlando, Florida but it encountered intense turbulence when it was at about 17,000 feet, or halfway to cruising altitude, CNN reports.
"All of a sudden, there was ... a drop like you're going down the bottom of a roller coaster," Jake Levin told CNN affiliate WKMG after the flight arrived landed in Orlando. It arrived give hours late.
"You saw ... shoes and apples and all kinds of things (flying in the air). It was so quick," he said. "They weren't sure if we were dropping for good or what was happening."
The turbulence was so severe that four passengers and two crew members were injured. According to the airline, the seat belt lights on Flight 735 were on at the time.
The flight was forced to turn back to Philadelphia so the injured passengers and crew members could be taken to the hospital and evaluated. Five people, including two flight attendants were taken to hospitals after the flight landed. The sixth didn't need treatment.
The other passengers on the flight boarded a later flight to Orlando. It is not clear how badly injured the passengers that were taken to the hospital were. The two flight attendants were discharged from the hospital later on Sunday.
The FAA is investigating the incident. There were reports of light turbulence in the area, but not as bad as what Flight 735 flew into.
This wasn't the only bad airline accident on Sunday. The wing of a WestJet 737 clipped a JetBlue flight while on the ground at Orlando International Airport. The JetBlue plane's horizontal stabilizer on the back set of wings was hit. The WestJet flight was pushing back from the gate when the collision occurred.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
