Thirty-one passengers and a crew member aboard an Etihad Airways flight were injured on Wednesday when their plane ran into sudden turbulence as it prepared to land in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The United Arab Emirates’ national airline said flight EY474, which departed from its hub in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, was hit by “severe and unexpected turbulence” about 45 minutes before landing at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
The Airbus A330-200 landed safely, but nine passengers and a crew member were taken to a local hospital for their injuries, Etihad said. Paramedics treated the other 22 at the airport’s clinic for minor injuries and they were released, the airline said.
Haerul Anwar, a spokesman for the Jakarta airport, described nine of the injuries as serious. He said officials from the airport and Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee were inspecting the plane.
The airline did not provide details on the severity of the injuries, but said the turbulence was severe enough that it damaged cabin storage bins.
Indonesian Ministry of Transportation spokesman Hemi Pamuraharjo said at least eight Indonesian passengers and a foreign flight attendant onboard were hurt, with several suffering broken bones.
Etihad did not immediately answer questions about how many passengers were onboard, but it did confirm that the airline’s planned Jakarta to Abu Dhabi flight on Wednesday on the same plane had been canceled, adding that the airline was assisting passengers.
Passengers onboard who spoke to Jakarta-based news Web site Okezone said oxygen masks tumbled out in the turbulence and passengers, including Muslim pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia, were hurt.
“It happened when I was performing prayer,” passenger Nenden Nurhaini told the Web site. “The plane suddenly began to shake so fast.”
Etihad, like its older Gulf competitors Qatar Airways and Dubai-based Emirates, has grown rapidly in recent years, primarily by attracting long-haul transit passengers.
Founded in 2003, it has a good safety record and last year carried 17.6 million passengers.
It holds stakes in several other airlines, including Air Berlin, Alitalia and Virgin Australia.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese