Rakesh kumar
The flight was diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport due to “significant turbulence.”
According to officials, a Lufthansa flight that encountered “significant turbulence” was diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport and seven passengers were transported to local hospitals. Flight 469 from Austin, Texas, was en route to Frankfurt, Germany, but landed safely in Virginia on Wednesday evening, according to Michael Cabbage, spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Cabbage stated that crews responded to the flight and transported seven individuals to hospitals with minor injuries.
The Airbus A330 reported severe disturbance at an altitude of 37,000 feet (approximately 11,300 metres) while flying over Tennessee, according to a statement issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency is conducting a probe.
Passenger Susan Zimmerman, 34, of Austin, Texas, reported that one of the pilots informed the cabin that the aircraft had fallen approximately 1,000 feet (approximately 305 metres) during the sudden episode.
In a phone interview, she stated, “It felt as if the floor had just collapsed beneath me.” Everything was drifting in the air. Momentarily, you are weightless.”
The brief but severe turbulence occurred approximately 90 minutes after departure and led to the precautionary unscheduled landing, Lufthansa stated in a statement. After landing, affected passengers received medical care, and Lufthansa ground personnel is working to rebook passengers, according to the airline.
The statement stated, “The safety and well-being of passengers and crew members is Lufthansa’s foremost priority at all times.”
According to a 2021 NTSB report, turbulence continues to be a significant cause of accidents and injuries during flight. Between 2009 and 2018, 37.6% of all incidents on larger commercial airlines were due to turbulence.
Essentially, turbulence is unstable air that travels in an unpredictable manner. Most individuals associate it with intense cyclones. But the most dangerous form of turbulence is clear-air turbulence, which can be difficult to predict and frequently occurs without any visible warning in the sky.
According to Scott Unger, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Nashville, storms that moved across Tennessee on Wednesday night generated intense winds in the upper atmosphere.
“It was extremely windy aloft, which increased the likelihood of disturbance on any flight,” he said.
According to Zimmerman, who is five months pregnant, the turbulence occurred during the midst of meal service as passengers and crew were moving throughout the cabin. She reported that she was wearing her seatbelt and that neither she nor her infant were injured.
She stated, “I believe she slept through it.” She is enveloped in amniotic fluid.
