A United Airlines flight to Washington, DC, was forced to make an emergency landing after the Boeing plane abruptly plunged in midair, hurting nearly 40 people onboard, including six hospitalized with serious injuries, according to officials and video of the chaos.
United Airlines Flight 613 turned back to Nigeria on Friday when the aircraft suddenly plunged 93 minutes into the trip to Dulles International Airport, according to Flightradar24 data.
The sudden drop jolted all 245 passengers and 11 crew aboard — tossing food, trays and personal items around the aircraft, dramatic video posted to social media shows.
Passengers can be heard yelling amid the chaos after the plane suddenly descended, causing objects to rain all over the cabin packed with passengers, according to the video.
The flight made an emergency pivot back to Lagos, where authorities counted 31 passengers and seven crew members injured, according to a statement from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
At least six — four passengers and two crew members — were seriously hurt and taken to Duchess Hospital in Ikeja, the statement noted.
Local emergency crew were on standby just four minutes after the pilot of the Boeing 787-800 aircraft reported distress at 1:20 a.m., according to the statement.
All six people injured in the melee have since been released from the hospital, a United Airlines spokesperson told CNN.
It is not yet clear what caused the mid-flight chaos, though severe turbulence has been ruled out, according to the report.
The airline is “working with aviation authorities in the US and Nigeria to understand the cause,” the United Airlines spokesperson told the outlet.
Michael Achimugu, Nigeria’s director of public affairs and consumer protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed the incident to Nigeria’s state-run media outlet Radio Nigeria.
He reassured the public that there had been no fatalities and said affected passengers had been accommodated in hotels, according to the report.
On Tuesday, the same aircraft flying from Lagos to Washington Dulles International Airport was diverted during a similar incident, the outlet said.
Eerily, that flight showed a rapid descent of 1,000 feet about 89 minutes into the flight, according to FlightRadar data.
It is unclear whether the two incidents are related, the outlet reported.
