Four United Airlines flight attendants were injured when a Hawaii-to-Los Angeles jet plunged thousands of feet in severe turbulence that lifted passengers out of their seats.
United Flight 1157, a Boeing 777 carrying 190 passengers and 10 crew, hit the jolt during descent into Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday night after leaving Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
The plane dropped as much as 3,675 feet in a single minute. Flight data showed it plunged from 22,800 feet to 14,000 feet in two minutes and 30 seconds before the crew steadied the descent. At least two of the injured attendants, women ages 62 and 58, suffered neck and back injuries. One required hospitalization. United said no passengers were hurt.
Passengers described a sudden freefall that threw people upward and set off shouting through the cabin.
Marly Wadlington, a San Diego resident on the flight, told ABC 7 she was mid-movie when the aircraft fell away.
"I was watching a movie and all of a sudden we just drop. And it felt like we dropped pretty far. It started shaking, everyone was yelling. We were all super scared."
Coral Pena said she heard a loud bang as the drop began.
"We just started falling, and I was like, ‘Oh my God.'"
Tami Dandoy, traveling from Lake Havasu, said the force pulled people clean off their seats.
"Our butts were not on the seat."
Melinda Sabosky described the same snap downward.
"We went flying, there was a little bump, and I don’t know how far down...it was a drop."
One passenger said she watched a travel companion’s head nearly strike the ceiling. Another reported seeing a flight attendant with blood on her head and leg.
The Post reviewed the flight path and found the drop came in the final stretch of the trip. A prior United Honolulu-to-Los Angeles flight never exceeded a descent rate of 2,725 feet per minute, and only briefly. Flight 1157 far outpaced that figure.
The pilot radioed air traffic control after the bump and kept the description short.
"It only lasted a couple of seconds, it felt like wake turbulence, but we’re smooth now."
Wake turbulence, as the FAA describes it, forms when one aircraft leaves two counter-rotating vortices behind it. Another plane that flies into those vortices can face rolling forces stronger than its controls can fully counter, which is why the phenomenon can injure people aboard. Flight audio pointed to that kind of encounter.
The flight landed safely but 20 minutes late. The aircraft then sat on the tarmac at LAX for at least 30 minutes. Injured flight attendants remained onboard during the wait for a gate, ABC 7 reported.
United confirmed the Boeing 777 met turbulence on descent and that none of the customers were injured. Four of the 10 crew members were not so fortunate. Cabin crews work unstrapped through much of a flight. When the floor drops without warning, they take the hit first.
No full public incident filing, NTSB docket, or named hospital update appeared in the initial accounts. The absolute calendar date was given only as Wednesday night. Names and precise conditions for all four injured attendants beyond the two women ages 62 and 58 were not released.
Airlines sell on-time arrivals and smooth rides. The people who keep the cabin orderly still pay the price when the sky does not cooperate.
