"Severe turbulence" while landing led to two passengers and two crew members on an Allegiant Air flight being hospitalized Wednesday in Florida. Describing what she saw happen to one flight attendant, a passenger tells WTSP, "Literally, she flew up in the air, like Matrix is the only way that I can think to describe it, was there for half-a-second, and then landed straight down, broke her ankle." She says another flight attendant suffered a similar injury and that her bone could be seen "protruding." A flight-tracking website shows that the Airbus A320, which was traveling from North Carolina's Asheville Regional Airport to St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, appeared to suddenly lose altitude, dropping from about 18,000 feet to about 13,000 feet in about one minute, Newsweek reports.
The airplane then "landed normally and taxied to the gate under its own power," Allegiant says in a statement. Airport paramedics met it at the gate; in addition to those hospitalized, six others were medically assessed and released on site. The condition of the four injured was not made public, but the witness says she saw one injured passenger leave the airplane lavatory with a cut above her eye, and another passenger describes seeing a woman in his row "hit the ceiling." The airline says it will work with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate. Experts have warned turbulence like this will continue to increase due to climate change. (More Allegiant Airlines stories.)
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