At least four injured as massive turbulence rocks United flight from Hawaii to LAX: ‘Just suddenly dropped’

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Four United Airlines flight attendants suffered injuries after a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles ran into severe turbulence during descent — dropping more than 3,500 feet in a minute at one point.

United Airlines Flight 1157 landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday night after departing Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. But at least two of the airline’s employees endured neck and back injuries, and one needed to be hospitalized.

In-flight communications indicated that the two flight attendants injured are female, ages 62 and 58. One passenger told ABC 7 she saw a flight attendant with blood on her head and leg.

A San Diego resident on the flight described the frightening in-flight horror.

“I was watching a movie and all of a sudden we just drop,” San Diego resident Marly Wadlington told ABC 7.  “And it felt like we dropped pretty far. It started shaking, everyone was yelling. We were all super scared.”

Flight data reviewed by The Post shows the flight dropped by as much as 3,675 feet in one minute during the last about 20 minutes of the flight. The flight plunged from 22,800 feet to 14,000 feet in 2 minutes and 30 seconds before continuing its descent at a more conservative rate.

The prior Hawaii to Los Angeles flight never reached a steeper descent rate than 2,725 feet per minute, and only sustained it briefly.

Another passenger, Coral Pena, said she heard a loud bang when the turbulence happened.

“We just started falling, and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” she said.

One passenger said she saw her travel companion’s head “almost hit the top” of the plane as they went flying.

“Our butts were not on the seat,” Tami Dandoy from Lake Havasu said.

“We went flying — there was a little bump, and I don’t know how far down…it was a drop,” Melinda Sabosky added.

United Airlines told The Post that no customers sustained injuries. The airline said the flight, flown with a Boeing 777, encountered turbulence during descent. There were 190 passengers and 10 crew aboard.

Flight audio indicated the crew encountered wake turbulence, which results when one aircraft generates two counter-rotating vortices that another aircraft then encounters, according to the FAA. Wake turbulence is capable of causing injuries because it can “impose rolling moments exceeding the roll-control authority of encountering aircraft.”

“It only lasted a couple of seconds, it felt like wake turbulence, but we’re smooth now,” a pilot said in a radio call to air traffic control.

The flight arrived 20 minutes late, according to flight data. The aircraft remained on the tarmac for at least 30 minutes while the injured flight attendants stayed onboard as the plane waited to reach a gate, ABC 7 reported.

No passengers were injured.

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