A packed passenger jet turned into a scene of chaos after severe turbulence sent people, food, drinks and phones flying through the cabin — leaving 10 people injured.
The frightening incident happened Sunday, May 24, aboard Cathay Pacific flight CX156, which was traveling from Brisbane, Australia, to Hong Kong.
The airline confirmed that four passengers and six crew members were hurt after the aircraft was suddenly rocked by brutal turbulence. Eight of the injured were taken for hospital treatment after the Airbus A350-900 landed at Hong Kong International Airport around 6:45 a.m. local time.
Cathay Pacific said medical crews were ready when the plane arrived and that the injuries were considered minor. But passengers described the ordeal as anything but minor.
One traveler told the South China Morning Post the sudden plunge felt like “falling through a drop tower.”
Another passenger, businessman Nicholas Stevenson, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the cabin erupted in panic when the plane suddenly dropped without warning.
“The plane just dropped,” Stevenson said, adding that for a horrifying moment, he thought it was “going down.”
He described a terrifying scene inside the aircraft.
“There were phones flying, coffees smashed into the roof, food absolutely everywhere,” he said. “People were screaming. There was a lot of people really freaking out.”
According to Stevenson, the turbulence struck just as flight attendants had begun serving breakfast. He said there was no warning, and the seatbelt sign had not come on before the plane suddenly dropped.
Then, just seconds later, it happened again.
“The first one caught everyone completely off guard, and then probably 15 or 20 seconds later it happened again,” Stevenson said. “People who’d just managed to get back into their seats or grab onto something got thrown around again.”
He added the most chilling detail of all: “Anyone who didn’t have their belts on hit the roof.”
Photos said to be from the flight, shared by A Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew on Facebook, showed the aftermath inside the cabin. Meals, containers, drinks and service items appeared scattered across the plane after the violent shake-up.
Stevenson said the flight attendants seemed to suffer the worst of it because they were standing in the aisle with service carts when the turbulence hit.
Passengers realized how serious the situation had become when the crew asked if there were any doctors on board. Four doctors reportedly stepped in to help the injured passengers and crew as the flight continued toward Hong Kong.
“There wasn’t really anywhere else to land,” Stevenson said. “They just treated people at the back of the plane while we kept flying.”
He said the pilot later told passengers the aircraft may have hit some kind of thunder or lightning cell.
“He said they didn’t really see it on the radar until the last minute because it was dark,” Stevenson recalled.
Airport Authority Hong Kong said it received a report about the flight at around 6 a.m. local time and immediately asked fire and ambulance crews to stand by.
The plane eventually landed safely, but for those on board, the final stretch of the flight was anything but calm.
What began as a routine overnight trip turned into a mid-air nightmare — one that passengers say left people screaming, injured and shaken as breakfast service turned into total chaos.
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