Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Eight people on board a Ryanair flight were injured after experiencing severe turbulence due to a thunderstorm, German police said on Thursday.
Wednesday’s flight took off from Berlin at 7:38 p.m. local time, destined for Milan’s Malpensa airport.
Data from Flightradar24 shows that just under an hour later, near Munich, it started to divert from the usual route after encountering turbulence.
Local police said that weather conditions prevented the Boeing 737 from landing in Munich, so it had to continue on to the smaller Bavarian town of Memmingen.
The German news agency dpa reported that strong winds tore the roofs off some houses in the area.
The Ryanair plane, carrying 179 passengers and 6 crew members, landed safely at 8:44 p.m.
The airline said the captain called ahead for medical assistance. Three people were taken to the hospital, according to the Bavarian police.
In a statement, it said a 59-year-old woman complained of back pain, another woman sustained a head laceration, and her 2-year-old toddler suffered bruises.
“As a precaution, all passengers were checked for injuries by the emergency services,” it added.
The ordeal wasn’t over yet, as the local aviation authority didn’t approve a connecting flight.
Instead, Ryanair arranged for bus companies to transport the passengers to Milan, according to the police statement.
That journey would be over 230 miles and take around four-and-a-half hours.
“To get passengers to their final destination as quickly as possible, we arranged for alternative transport from Memmingen to Milan that night, as well as a replacement flight [Thursday] morning,” the airline said in a statement.
“We sincerely apologise to passengers affected by this diversion,” it added.
The 15-year-old plane, registered as EI-EKN, has resumed regular service, per Flightradar24 data.
Concerns around turbulence have come into focus in the airline industry since 79 people were injured and one man died on a Singapore Airlines flight last May.
Two weeks later, at an industry conference, Emirates’ president said the incident would likely lead to stricter seatbelt rules.
Turbulence is getting more common due to the climate crisis, Guy Gratton, an associate professor of aviation and the environment at Cranfield University, previously told Business Insider.
Warmer temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more moisture, increasing the likelihood and intensity of thunderstorms.
The warming atmosphere is also speeding up the jet streams, which exacerbates clear-air turbulence — the type encountered in the Singapore Airlines incident.
The post A thunderstorm caused turbulence so bad that it injured 8 people, and passengers were put on a bus to their final destination appeared first on Business Insider.
