At least two people have been injured on an easyJet flight from Corfu to London that was struck by brutal turbulence, forcing the pilots to seek an emergency landing.
The British carrier’s Airbus A320 departed from Corfu Airport in Greece at 12:44pm local time on Monday, and was bound for London Gatwick with 181 passengers and crew on board. But just 20 minutes into the flight, the easyJet aircraft was battered by turbulence while cruising at 485mph at an altitude of 28,000ft.
Two members of the cabin crew who were preparing to serve food to the passengers were violently smashed against the plane walls, sustaining injuries severe enough that pilots decided to perform an emergency landing at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.
The shocking incident came at a time when southern Italy was wracked by inclement weather and took place just hours after the Bayesian superyacht capsized and sank off Sicily after being smashed by a deadly waterspout. But just 20 minutes into the flight, the easyJet aircraft was battered by turbulence while cruising at 485mph at an altitude of 28,000ft.
Two members of the cabin crew who were preparing to serve food to the passengers were violently smashed against the plane walls, sustaining injuries severe enough that pilots decided to perform an emergency landing at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.
The shocking incident came at a time when southern Italy was wracked by inclement weather and took place just hours after the Bayesian superyacht capsized and sank off Sicily after being smashed by a deadly waterspout. Passengers were met with easyJet crew and airport staff and provided immediate assistance upon their landing in Rome.
The injured flight attendants received immediate medical attention, while a replacement crew and aircraft were arranged to allow the passengers to continue to London Gatwick on Monday afternoon.The aircraft involved in the incident remained parked in Rome the day after the event for safety checks.
An easyJet spokeswoman confirmed the incident in a statement that read: ‘The flight on August 19 experienced turbulence which unfortunately injured two cabin crew members.
‘As a result, the captain decided to divert the flight to Rome, where the flight attendants received medical assistance.
‘The safety and well-being of our customers and crew are easyJet’s top priority, and our pilots are trained to manage turbulence.’
Meanwhile, Italy’s air safety agency, ANSV, declared it had launched an investigation into the incident to determine whether the turbulence was a sudden and unforeseeable event – known as ‘clear air turbulence’ – or if it was visible on the aircraft’s weather radar but underestimated by the pilots. Given the type and severity of the injuries reported, we have initiated a safety investigation, classifying the event as an ”accident’,’ the ANSV stated in a press release.
But the agency added that investigators will also need to clarify why the pilots chose to divert to Rome instead of the closer airports of Bari or Brindisi.
Their investigation this week takes place as specialist search and rescue dive teams continue to inspect the sunken Bayesian superyacht in a desperate attempt to locate six missing people, including British tech mogul Mike Lynch, who are thought to have been trapped on board when the yacht sunk early this week.
The £30million vessel went down a matter of minutes after being struck by a freak waterspout while it was anchored off the coast of Porticello in Sicily just before 5am on Monday.
While 15 people were rescued in the aftermath of the disaster, six people including billionaire Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and a boss at Morgan Stanley bank remain missing.
The search for those unaccounted for entered its third day this morning, with rescue divers continuing their efforts to reach the cabins in the hopes of finding them.
An engineer has claimed the missing passengers could still be alive in air pockets 164ft below the surface, meaning divers – who can only remain underwater for ten minutes per dive due to the depth of where the wreck is – are competing in a race against time.
Their operation has been hampered by difficulty getting into the ship with divers forced to smash their way through a 3cm-thick porthole to gain access to one area and other parts of the wrecked vessel blocked by furniture.One expert at the scene said an early focus of the official investigation into the tragedy, launched by prosecutors in nearby Termini Imerese, would be whether the yacht’s crew had closed access hatches into the vessel before the storm struck.
Investigators would look at whether appropriate measures had been taken, given the forecasts for bad weather overnight, and if any of the crew members are criminally liable.