Eleven people sustained injuries when a Lufthansa flight from Buenos Aires to Frankfurt encountered severe turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean, Reuters reported. Lufthansa stated that the Boeing 747-8, carrying 329 passengers and 19 crew members, experienced brief turbulence within an intertropical convergence zone.
“Unfortunately, five passengers and six crew members suffered mostly minor injuries,” a Lufthansa spokesperson told Reuters in an email. “The safety of the flight was not in jeopardy at any time.”
Cases of extreme turbulence on rise
Incidents of extreme turbulence have occurred frequently this year. In May, severe turbulence on a Singapore Airlines-operated Boeing 777 flight from London left one passenger dead, forcing an emergency landing in Bangkok.
Many others suffered head and spinal injuries. Just a week later, a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin also hit severe turbulence, injuring 12 people.
In July, strong turbulence on an Air Europa flight from Madrid to Montevideo injured over 40 passengers and led to an emergency landing in Brazil.
According to a 2021 US National Transportation Safety Board study, turbulence remains the most common cause of airline accidents, accounting for over one-third of such incidents from 2009 to 2018, often resulting in serious injuries, though rarely causing structural damage to the aircraft.