On Monday, an Air Europa flight was struck by severe turbulence en route from Spain to Uruguay, leaving 23 passengers hospitalized — including several with neck and skull fractures.
It was the second incident in just over a month where turbulence encountered during flight resulted in serious injuries. In May, a Singapore Airlines flight that ran into a patch of bad turbulence left one man dead and more than 100 people injured.
Research forecasts the incidents of air turbulence to increase in numbers and severity, largely as a result of climate change.
“I’ve come across a number of studies that use current weather modelling and prediction models to see how climate change can affect incidences of turbulence,” said Serhiy Yarusevych, a professor of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. “They seem to indicate that there’s a very strong correlation of this increase.”
Severe air turbulence leads to serious injuries
On May 21, a Singapore Airlines flight flying from London to Singapore ran into bad turbulence over the Andaman Sea, hurling items, passengers and crew members about the cabin and sending the Boeing 777 plane on a 1,800 metre descent in about three minutes — after which it made an emergency landing in Thailand.
In the aftermath of the chaos, more than 100 people aboard the 211 passenger and 18 crew member flight were hospitalized, some with spinal cord, skull and brain injuries; 20 were rushed to intensive care and a 73-year-old British man died, possibly of a heart attack, Thai authorities reported.
A month later, on Monday, a similar bout of turbulence struck an Air Europa flight, forcing the Boeing 787 to divert to Brazil. Thirty-six passengers were treated for injuries, with 23 taken to hospital, according to the New York Times.
Videos posted to social media showed the damaged interior of the cabin as well as passengers lying in the aisle, some in neck braces. A person was seen dangling from an overhead compartment; it’s unclear how they got there.
Despite these recent incidents, it’s relatively rare that turbulence leads to serious harm. Between 2009 and 2022, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration recorded just 163 “serious turbulence injuries” — requiring hospital stays of at least two days — most of which were among crew members. 2022 saw 17 total incidents, while six were recorded in 2021.