People thrown ‘like little rag dolls’ in JetBlue turbulence

JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw says seven customers and two crew members were taken to a Rapid City hospital by ambulance; 15 additional customers were taken by bus for further evaluation.

A cross-country jetBlue flight made an emergency landing in Rapid City Thursday evening after severe turbulence caused injuries to passengers and members of the flight crew.

JetBlue sent a replacement aircraft to Rapid City to take the remaining passengers to Sacramento, the airline said in a statement. As the Sacramento Bee reports, the flight had to be diverted due to weather to Rapid City, South Dakota, where it landed at 7:30 p.m.

The flight is now scheduled to reach its destination, Sacramento, at 4:04 am (12:04 GMT). “It was bad. The lights went out in the cabin”, she said. You could tell there were, like, storm clouds outside.

According to Lee, the sudden drop in altitude was what caused all of the injuries.

Passenger Derek Lindahl posted a photo on Twitter of one of the plane’s toilets apparently torn from its foundations during the turbulence. “It was just normal – if you fly a lot…it just kind of shakes and then it’s okay”, one passenger of Flight 429 told South Dakota Public Broadcasting Station 429.

Passenger Rhonda Renee tweeted an image of the woman flight attendant being helped off the plane. “I don’t know how far it dropped, but all I recall is my laptop nearly hit the ceiling, several other passengers hit their heads, and a bunch of the overhead bins popped open”.

Deborah Simmons suffered injuries to her head, neck and back, and also said she suffers from PTSD.