By WRAL staff
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RALEIGH, North Carolina (WRAL) — A woman traveling from Miami to RDU said she was half asleep when the plane suddenly dropped.
“It was like being on the top of a roller coaster and going down,” she said. “It sounded like we hit something and then we just dropped in the air.”
The woman did not want to give her name. WRAL News spoke to three passengers who were on board American Airlines flight 1286 from Miami to Raleigh-Durham Sunday night. None of them wanted to be identified, but all told a story of a rocky flight, fear, injuries and a lack of information.
Cameron Autry, who told WRAL News he was on the plane, said he was in the restroom when the turbulence began.
“I think I might have been in the absolutely worst place in the entire airplane when it happened,” he said. “I am just holding onto the faucet and the edge of the sink, like just whatever I could find.”
According to RDU, five people were taken to WakeMed after what the airline described as unexpected turbulence. An RDU spokesperson said that airport rescue personnel, along with Wake and Durham EMS, met the flight when it landed around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday.
One passenger said the sudden change in altitude sent people and their laptops, headphones and cellphones flying, and left passengers physically and emotionally shaken.
“I would say it was absolutely horrific. People thought that they were going to lose their lives,” she said.
Another passenger called it “pure chaos.”
“It was just a very, very, very scary experience,” she said. “I think everybody was very shaken up.”
American Airlines released the following statement:
American Airlines flight 1286 with service from Miami (MIA) to Raleigh-Durham (RDU) landed safely at RDU after encountering unexpected turbulence while in flight. We thank our crew members for their professionalism and our customers for their understanding. – American Airlines spokesperson
The airline said that the seat belt sign was on when the aircraft encountered turbulence, but the passengers who spoke to WRAL News said that was not the case.
They also said it took too long for the pilot to address the passengers and crew.
“It took way too long for the captain to address what happened,” one woman said. “There were injured people aboard the aircraft. He should have stopped at the closest airport instead of flying another hour and 10 minutes were two people were in need of immediate medical attention.”
The passengers described a man knocked unconscious, a flight attendant who suffered a broken arm and another flight attendant burned by hot water from the drinks cart.
“They wouldn’t have been serving drinks if they knew turbulence was coming,” she said. “They were carrying hot water. I mean, there was ice flying everywhere, soda cans, cups. People that were by the carts, they just had things flying in every direction.”
The passengers also questioned the explanation that turbulence caused the injuries.
One told WRAL News, “Turbulence doesn’t do this. I mean, I fly all the time. I’ve never experienced something like this.” She and other passengers reported seeing lightning outside the plane at the time.
“We’re all looking at each other like, no, it was definitely not turbulence,” the passenger said. “We definitely saw lightning.”
American Airlines has not said that anything other than turbulence led to the rocky ride and the injuries.
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