Dozens of people are injured after an Air Europa flight on a Boeing plane traveling from Spain to Uruguay experienced severe turbulence over the Atlantic and made an emergency landing in Brazil on Monday, July 1. Passengers said people flew out of their seats and through the cabin.
One man got stuck in the ceiling of the plane. Video on social media shows his feet sticking out from a bin. Passengers couldn’t find him at first and footage shows them frantically helping him down. There is also a baby crying in the background.
In images of the aftermath, air masks dangle from the ceiling, seats are ripped apart, and overhead compartments are in shambles with panels completely torn off.
According to the New York Post, one passenger told reporters in Uruguay that the pilots warned of turbulence before the flight and asked passengers to remain seated with their seatbelts on. He said the plane fell abruptly and “those who did not have seatbelts flew and some remained hooked to the roof.”
Other passengers described the scene as straight out of a “horror movie” and said they were afraid for their lives. Emergency crews were waiting on the tarmac when the plane arrived in Brazil.
The flight was carrying 325 people, and the airline arranged accommodations for the remaining passengers to be picked up by bus and taken to Uruguay.
This is the second turbulence incident to cause injuries to passengers in less than a month. In May, a man died on a Singapore Airlines flight from a suspected heart attack when his flight from London encountered severe turbulence and the plane suddenly descended 6,000 feet.
Dozens of others were injured on that same flight.
