'Flight from hell' sent passengers flying out of their seats as plane nosedived

03 July 2023 , 08:07

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Cracks in the ceiling after the incident (Image: REDDIT)

Harrowing photos of the damage caused inside a plane have been revealed after extreme turbulence sent passengers flying into the air.

The flight from Honolulu, Hawaii hit strong winds and encountered "severe turbulence" midway through the 10-hour flight to Sydney as it flew over the Pacific Ocean.

The plane reportedly nosedived and sent passengers flying out of their seats and crashing onto the floor.

Around a dozen people were treated at the scene by paramedics, while one passenger and three flight attendants were taken to hospital with injuries and back pain.

One passenger shared two images to Reddit of "cabin damage caused by human bodies flying out of seats after the plane hit shocking turbulence."

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One of the ceiling panels was bent after the turbulence (REDDIT)

In the photo, a ceiling panel between the seats is seen bent out of shape while another picture showed a huge crack next to the control panels above a passenger's head.

The passenger wrote that the plane nosedived between 800 to 1,000 metres at a speed of about 950km/h.

They continued: "We were informed over the intercom that the turbulence was about to get bad and we all needed to buckle up and not get up to use to bathroom.

"Before the sentence had finished the plane started shaking like mad before the nose got pushed down and the engines jetted us downward.

"The pilot recovered us after a few seconds - but according to the altitude readings on the in-flight radar on the screen from before and after the dive we dipped somewhere between 800m and 1km in those few seconds."

Social media users lambasted the passengers for not wearing a seatbelt during the flight, but the passenger hit back saying there were only a few seconds between the safety warning and the turbulence.

A Hawaiian Airlines plane

They wrote: "Nobody can avoid peeing for an entire 11-hour flight, and the time between the verbal warning on the intercom and the event was barely a few seconds.

'Plus, most of the seriously injured people were crew who didn't have the luxury of sitting around with their seatbelts on all the time."

Hawaii Airlines said the Airbus A330 was inspected before boarding and thanked Sydney Airport first responders for their assistance.

"Our Airbus A330 aircraft carrying 163 passengers and 12 crew members landed without incident at Sydney Airport", Hawaiian Airlines said in a statement.

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"We conducted a thorough inspection of the aircraft before boarding HA452, which departed Sydney to Honolulu."

Hundreds of flights at airports in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have been hit in recent weeks by widespread delays and cancellations due to strong winds and staffing issues.

Rachel Hagan