A Delta Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Wednesday following “significant” turbulence that injured dozens of passengers and crew members.
Flight 56, traveling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, took off at 4:30 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. BST) but was diverted to Minneapolis after encountering severe turbulence. The flight landed approximately two hours later, at around 7:45 p.m. local time (1:45 a.m. BST), ending a nine-hour journey.
Upon arrival, medical personnel met the Airbus A330-900 to assess and treat those injured on board, with 25 passengers subsequently transported to local hospitals for further care.
Delta Airlines issued a statement saying they are working with affected passengers to support their immediate needs. The flight carried a total of 275 passengers and 13 crew members.
According to data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), since 2009, there have been 207 cases of severe injuries caused by turbulence in the U.S.—defined as injuries requiring hospital stays of more than 48 hours. Annually, it is estimated that around 5,000 incidents of severe or greater turbulence occur, out of over 35 million flights worldwide.
Severe turbulence is characterized by the aircraft experiencing vertical movements that exert more than 1.5 g-force on the body, which can lift a passenger out of their seat if they aren’t wearing a seatbelt.