Four United Airlines flight attendants were injured when a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles encountered severe turbulence during its descent, dropping more than 3,500 feet in a single minute at one point.
United Flight 1157 landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday night after leaving Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu. At least two crew members suffered neck and back injuries, and one was taken to a hospital.
In-flight communications identified the two injured female flight attendants as 62 and 58 years old. One passenger told ABC 7 that she saw a flight attendant with blood on her head and leg.
Marly Wadlington, a San Diego resident who was aboard the plane, described the sudden and frightening drop.
“I was watching a movie and all of a sudden we just drop,” Wadlington told ABC 7. “And it felt like we dropped pretty far. It started shaking, everyone was yelling. We were all super scared.”
Flight data reviewed by The Post showed the aircraft descended as much as 3,675 feet in one minute during the final roughly 20 minutes of the journey. Over a span of 2 minutes and 30 seconds, it fell from 22,800 feet to 14,000 feet before continuing downward at a slower rate.
By comparison, the previous Hawaii-to-Los Angeles flight reached a maximum descent rate of 2,725 feet per minute and maintained that speed only briefly.
Another passenger, Coral Pena, said a loud bang accompanied the turbulence.
“We just started falling, and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” Pena said.
One passenger recalled seeing her travel companion’s head come “almost hit the top” of the aircraft as people were thrown upward.
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“Our butts were not on the seat,” said Tami Dandoy of Lake Havasu.
Melinda Sabosky added, “We went flying — there was a little bump, and I don’t know how far down…it was a drop.”
United Airlines told The Post that none of the customers were injured. The airline said the Boeing 777 encountered turbulence during descent. The flight was carrying 190 passengers and 10 crew members.
Flight audio suggested the aircraft encountered wake turbulence. The FAA defines the phenomenon as two counter-rotating vortices produced by one aircraft and later encountered by another. It can cause injuries because the resulting forces may create “rolling moments exceeding the roll-control authority of encountering aircraft.”
“It only lasted a couple of seconds, it felt like wake turbulence, but we’re smooth now,” a pilot told air traffic control in a radio transmission.
Flight data showed the aircraft arrived 20 minutes late. ABC 7 reported that it remained on the tarmac for at least 30 minutes while the injured flight attendants stayed aboard and the plane waited for a gate.
No passengers were hurt.
