After experiencing severe turbulence, a Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam was diverted to Minneapolis-St. Paul, where 25 passengers were hospitalized, according to a statement from Delta Airlines.
According to a statement from the airline, Delta flight DL56, which was traveling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam with 275 passengers and 13 crew members, had to be diverted to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport due to severe turbulence throughout the trip. According to Flight Aware, Flight 56 was diverted to Minneapolis at 6:43 p.m. and made a safe landing at approximately 7:45 p.m.
When flight attendants were in the aisle with beverage carts, the turbulence sent them flying: Every single one of them flew and struck the ceiling, and the beverage carts also went into the air, a passenger who asked to remain anonymous told FOX 13 Salt Lake City. Everything that was loose in the cabin was flung all over the place. Covered in liquids and service items, the jet is a complete disaster.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Fire Department and paramedics arrived at the gate to administer immediate medical care, according to the Metropolitan Airports Commission. According to Delta Airline, 25 of the passengers were admitted to the hospital for assessment and treatment; as of Thursday, all of them had been released.
Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation for the United States, said in a statement that a thorough investigation was being conducted to determine whether the weather could have been predicted beforehand:Flyers are aware that we frequently cancel or postpone flights due to inclement weather. Since this type of turbulence is extremely dangerous and we don’t want the flying public to experience it, we are currently conducting a thorough review to determine what went wrong. That didn’t happen here. We will correct anything we discover. We’re going to investigate it more.
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