UA B777 encounters turbulence in mid flight, 25 injured.

[Derice]

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/24 ... etail.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

DENVER -- As many as 25 people were injured when a Boeing 777 traveling from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles hit severe air turbulence and made an emergency landing at Denver International Airport.

The airliner landed around 7:40 p.m. Tuesday and emergency personnel set up a triage area on Concourse B, where the plane had taxied to the terminal.

At least one of the passengers was immediately taken to a waiting ambulance, skipping the triage area, which is used to evaluate injuries before transport. The woman was taken to Denver Health Medical Center.


The "walking wounded" were treated in the B concourse. Most of the injured passengers were complaining of head, neck and back pain, paramedics said.

"It looked like it's mostly like neck injuries and bruises. I saw a couple of people bleeding on their elbows. One lady, she was texting her daughter, she had sprained her ankle," said Madeleine Anaya, a passenger on the flight.

Four of those injured were flight attendants, according to United Airlines.

None of the injuries were life-threatening, firefighters said, but some are considered serious, considering that the passengers hit the ceiling of the plane with quite a bit of force when the plane flew into the rough air.

Ambulances ferried 21 injured passengers to five local hospitals.

Flight 967 was en route from Washington Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles when it hit the turbulence near Wichita, Kan., around 7:15 p.m. and diverted to DIA from the Kansas/Oklahoma border.

"The crew put safety first and immediately diverted the aircraft to Denver to get medical attention as quickly as possible," United said in a statement.


The flight path of United Flight 967, showing where it diverted.


The jet was carrying 255 passengers and a crew of 10, according to United Airlines.

A passenger on the plane texted her husband that many of the passengers weren't wearing seat belts when they hit the turbulence and those were the passengers who were injured.

The turbulence hit while some of the passengers were out of their seats, halfway through the flight.

Another passenger said it felt like the plane dropped several hundred feet.

All passengers were off the jet by 8:05 p.m. and all of the patients who required hospital treatment were transported from DIA by 9 p.m.

Hospitals that were put on standby to accept injured passengers were Denver Health Medical Center, University Hospital, St. Joseph's Hosptial, Aurora Medical Center and Rose Medical Center. Seven injured people went to Denver Health. Four went to University Hospital.

One 12-year-old child was taken by ambulance to The Children's Hospital in Aurora.

The passengers who were not hurt boarded another plane late Tuesday night and continued the flight to Los Angeles.

People who fly often know that turbulence is a common occurence in flight. In fact, aviation expert Steve Cowell said in this region the Rocky Mountains play a role in the turbulence toward the east.

"It's just like water flowing over rocks in a stream, where you have turbulence that's created downstream of those rocks. The exact same thing happens with winds flowing over the Rocky Mountains. It creates downstream turbulence," Cowell said.

Cowell said the incident is proof it's best to always keep your seatbelt on during flights, no matter if the seatbelt sign is on or off.