Twelve people have been left injured after a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin, Ireland hit an area of turbulence, with one passenger describing it as the "worst 15 seconds of my life."
Dublin Airport said in a statement that Qatar Airways flight QR017 – a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – managed to land safely around midday Sunday.
"Upon landing, the aircraft was met by emergency services, including Airport Police and our Fire and Rescue department, due to 6 passengers and 6 crew [12 total] on board reporting injuries after the aircraft experienced turbulence while airborne over Turkey," the airport said. "All passengers were assessed for injury prior to disembarking the aircraft. Eight passengers were subsequently taken to hospital."
Qatar Airways said in its own statement that a "small number of passengers and crew sustained minor injuries in flight and are now receiving medical attention" and that "the matter is now subject to an internal investigation."
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Passengers onboard the aircraft described a sudden drop during the flight, causing travelers to hit the ceiling of the cabin.
"It was very scary, to be honest, I’m still shivering... that was the worst 15 seconds of my life," one flier, Mufaddal Ali, told The Associated Press.
"It was quite scary, the plane just seemed to stop, which it didn’t, but then dropped, quite a severe drop. Fortunately, the captain got it under control quite quickly because I was thinking ‘oh it’s going to keep falling," another passenger, Cheryl Suker, told the AP. "But unfortunately, there were a couple of passengers that didn’t have seatbelts on. They were in front of us, they were thrown out of their seats and hit their head."
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Despite the incident, the flight crew kept tending to the passengers onboard.
"The staff were amazing, like to actually get up and have to look after us and they are going around with bandages on their hands and bloodied faces," passenger Philomena Prendergrast told the AP.
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It happened just days after a Singapore Airlines jet encountered "severe turbulence" that left 1 dead. That plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, Thailand, last week.
