4 Crew Members Injured in Severe Turbulence Incident

Safety at Work

San Francisco, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) – Four crew members were injured when severe turbulence hit a United Airlines flight to Singapore last month.

Officials said a passenger was also injured in the incident. In a report filed with the Federal Aviation Administration on April 22, the five were all on a redeye flight - United Airlines Flight 1 - travelling from San Francisco to Singapore on March 26. The flight was about 12 hours from San Francisco when the incident happened.

According to the FAA, the Flight UAL29, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, experienced sudden, violent turbulence while flying over Butuan City, Philippines, carrying 174 passengers and 14 crew members. Officials said one of the crew members suffered serious injuries, while the three other crew members sustained minor injuries. It wasn’t clear what the injuries were in initial reports.

An airline spokesperson said the flight “experienced a brief period of unexpected turbulence.”

"Medical personnel met the aircraft upon arrival in Singapore and transported one customer and four flight attendants to the hospital,” they said in a statement. "We're grateful to our crew for their efforts to ensure the safety of fellow crew members and our customers."

The incident is being investigated by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the National Transportation Safety Board.

A similar incident happened on another United flight carrying 32 people in March. In that incident, five people were injured when the flight was hit by severe turbulence during a thunderstorm. The SkyWest flight, operating as United Express from Springfield, Missouri, was due to arrive in Houston, on March 2, but ended up making an emergency diversion to Waco Regional Airport.

“SkyWest flight 5690, operating as United Express from Springfield, Missouri, to Houston, landed safely at Waco Regional Airport after experiencing turbulence,” an airline spokesperson said at the time.

“Medical personnel met and evaluated passengers, and five passengers were transported to the hospital. SkyWest and United are making sure the injured customers get the care they need and are working to line up new transportation options for everyone on this flight."

Seven people were injured in a severe turbulence incident in August of 2024 as well.

Officials said a United Airlines flight was en route from Cancun, Mexico to Chicago when it was forced to make an emergency landing in Memphis. The plane first reported turbulence over Louisiana, the FAA said.

“United flight 1196 diverted to Memphis this afternoon after encountering a brief period of severe turbulence while the seatbelt sign was on,” the airline said in a statement to CNN Wednesday. “Paramedics met the aircraft at the gate and transported one passenger to the hospital.”

The other six passengers were not injured enough for treatment, officials said.

Turbulence is the leading cause of injury to flight attendants and passengers in nonfatal accidents, the FAA said. A study by the University of Reading in Pennsylvania found that severe turbulence had increased by 55 percent in the past 40 years.

Officials said turbulence is an unnerving phenomenon but rarely injures anyone on planes. The risks have come under more scrutiny since a passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight died last year. Another 71 people were injured in that incident, officials said.

According to the FAA, there have only been 184 serious turbulence injuries between 2009 and 2023. Only 37 of those people were passengers, the other nearly 150 were crew members.

Korean Air announced recently it would stop serving instant noodles because of burns caused by turbulence. The airline said turbulence had become “a persistent and growing problem in recent years,” and that the number of turbulence incidents had doubled between 2009 and 2024.

Korean Air said climate change is having an impact on the number of turbulence incidents. Turbulence is created when wind speed differences cause more wind speed friction between air molecules. The warming climate puts more energy which creates more friction. Korean Air officials said the changes in air temperature are climate related.

"Climate change is making encounters with clear air turbulence more likely and more severe," Guy Gratton, an associate professor of aviation and the environment at Cranfield University, previously told BI.

A 2023 study found that turbulence is becoming more common over the North Atlantic and around the north polar jet stream.

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