Stormy weather in Tennessee last night caused such severe turbulence on a Lufthansa flight, seven passengers were sent to the hospital.
The flight, headed to Frankfurt from Austin, Texas, was at an altitude of 37,000ft when it was hit with what the flight crew described as "significant turbulence," according to The Guardian. (See footage of the aftermath below, posted by JACDEC.)
"It was shocking," a passenger later told ABC News. "It was kind of like you're in slow motion, that you just see everything, like in a movie, where you just see everything lift and all of a sudden it just comes right back down."
The plane made an emergency landing at Washington Dulles International Airport so that passengers could get medical help. Fortunately, their injuries were reportedly minor.
From The Guardian:
Flight 469 from Austin, Texas, landed safely on Wednesday evening at the airport in Virginia, a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokesman, Michael Cabbage, said.
Crews responded to the flight and took seven people to hospitals with injuries that were believed to be minor, Cabbage said.
The Airbus A330 reported severe turbulence at an altitude of 37,000ft while flying over Tennessee, the Federal Aviation Administration said, adding that it was investigating. …
Storms moved across areas of Tennessee on Wednesday night, creating strong winds in the upper atmosphere, said Scott Unger, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Nashville.
"It was very windy aloft, which could lead easily lead to the possibility of turbulence with any flight," he said.
