Severe turbulence injured 25 passengers and crew members aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, forcing the plane to divert to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on Wednesday evening.
Flight 56, operated on an Airbus A330-900 with 275 passengers and 13 crew members, landed safely at MSP shortly before 8 p.m. local time. Medical personnel and emergency responders, including the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Fire Department and paramedics, met the aircraft to provide immediate care.
Twenty-five individuals, including seven crew members, were taken to local hospitals for evaluation. Delta confirmed Thursday morning that all evaluated passengers and crew who shared their status have been released.
Passenger Leeann Nash, traveling with her husband, described the incident to Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP: “There was actually no warning. It was a very abrupt, hard hit. If you didn’t have your seat belt on — everyone that didn’t — they hit the ceiling, and then they fell to the ground, and the carts also hit the ceiling and fell to the ground, and people were injured, and it happened several times, so it was really scary.”
She noted that glass bottles and cellphones were flying around, adding, “Those carts are very heavy, so we were fortunate that we had seat belts on at the time,” ABC reported.
Nash praised the crew, saying, “I will hand it to the flight attendants, they were incredibly calm, very well trained and very responsive.”
Delta emphasized that “safety is our No. 1 value” and said its Care Team reached out to passengers Wednesday night and Thursday to address immediate needs and arrange onward travel. The airline scheduled a special flight from MSP to Amsterdam for Thursday evening to continue passengers’ journeys.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident. Delta said it is cooperating fully and expressed gratitude to first responders for their support.