Four flight attendants and 38 passengers were injured after a Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330 encountered severe turbulence as it descended to land in Honolulu (HNL). Out of the injured, 20 were taken to hospitals, and 11 were diagnosed with severe injuries.
It’s reported that the seatbelt sign was on when the aircraft encountered clear air turbulence. Eyewitness accounts state many passengers were not buckled up and, as a result, were lifted out of their seats and hit the cabin ceiling. Footage taken after the turbulence shows damage to the interior of the aircraft, where bodies likely smashed into the roof of the cabin.
The aircraft hit the turbulent air around a stage of the flight known as “top of descent”, a busy phase of flight for Flight Attendants as they are active in the cabin preparing the aircraft and passengers for landing. Even though the seatbelt signs are turned on, many passengers typically pick this time to line up to use the lavatories one last time before arrival. According to Captain Christain Wall, a pilot for a leading international airline and a Pilot Expert at Airsidechat.com, the descent phase of a flight poses an additional risk to passenger safety because the aircraft moves from a safer higher altitude to a more unstable lower altitude. As the plane makes this change, it is at more risk of hitting unexpected turbulence, which is why the seatbelt sign is turned on during this entire stage of the flight. “This is why you will often see the pilots put the seatbelt sign on early before landing because we know about the increased risk of turbulence during the level change,” Wall said. “In addition, we could have been warned by ATC, heard other aircraft on the radio mention oncoming bumps, or the airline’s operations department could have sent a warning to the aircraft. So, the moral of the story is, if the seatbelt sign goes on, assume there’s a good reason for it!”
Source – A fly guys cabin crew lounge Facebook page