A JetBlue flight is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration after eight passengers were hospitalized Monday due to what the airline called “sudden severe turbulence.”
The flight took off from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and landed safely at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on time at 5:24 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware data, but experienced sudden turbulence mid-air as it approached Florida, the airline said in a statement to HuffPost.
Those injured included seven passengers and one crew member. Details weren’t released.
“JetBlue will work to support our customers and crewmembers,” the airline said.
The Airbus A320 aircraft “has been taken out of service for inspection,” JetBlue added.
NTSB confirmed its investigation into Monday’s incident in a post on X, formerly Twitter. Reuters reported the FAA is also probing the flight.
Turbulence is a common cause of accidents involving air carriers, the NTSB said in a 2021 report.
Last week, a preliminary NTSB report showed that two passengers and two crew members were seriously injured, along with 13 other passengers who sustained minor injuries, after an Aug. 29 Delta Airlines flight from Milan to Atlanta encountered turbulence upon descent. The aircraft “sustained minor damage,” the report added.
In March, a Lufthansa flight that took off from Austin, Texas, headed for Frankfurt, Germany, was hit by “significant turbulence” and had to be diverted to a Washington, D.C., airport. Seven people were hospitalized.
