Transatlantic United Airlines Flight Diverted After 12 Injured During Severe Turbulence

A United Airlines flight from Houston bound for London was diverted to Shannon Airport in Ireland, after extremely bumpy skies injured 12 onboard.

Airport officials and the airline at first said 14 passengers and two members of the flight crew were hospitalized for injuries sustained during the flight — including cuts, bruises, and minor head injuries— but University Hospital Limerick later confirmed that 10 passengers and two crew members were admitted, and 11 people discharged so far.

“All have since been discharged, except for one of our flight attendants,” United said in a statement.

Flight 880 was diverted due to a “medical situation,” a Shannon Airport spokesman told NBC News, resulting from “severe and unexpected turbulence.”

One passenger told the news station that things were flying “all over the cabin and kitchen area.”

“One attendant [cracked] the side of her head and was bleeding,” he said. “My shoulders are really really hurting from grabbing onto the armrest during those altitude declines.”

Another passenger told The Telegraph that there was a “sudden huge drop.”

“People who didn’t have their belts on flew out of their seats, all the TVs and the lights went off and people were screaming,” she said. “Some people were walking around and it was mainly them who were injured, but we were all terrified. For a moment I thought I was going to die.”

This is the second report of extremely bumpy skies this month: earlier in August, 24 JetBlue passengers were injured during severe turbulence on a flight from Boston to Sacramento.