As many as 27 passengers were hurt when an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Bangkok hit an unexpected pocket of severe turbulence.
No injuries were life-threatening, but several passengers suffered broken bones and three needed surgery, Russian officials said.
A passenger described being “hurled” up to the ceiling, trying to cling on amid shaking which “wouldn’t stop”, the BBC reported.
The turbulence occurred in clear skies, which meant the crew were not able to warn passengers, the airline said.
“The reasons behind the injures were that some of the passengers had not had their seatbelts fastened,” Aeroflot said.
The incident occurred about 40 minutes before the Boeing 777 carrying 313 passengers was due to land in Bangkok.
Twenty-four of those injured were Russians while the other three were Thai, the Russian embassy in Thailand said.
Seventeen people still remained in hospitals in Bangkok yesterday following the incident.
The patients that are still under doctors’ care have contusions, and several have fractured or broken bones, the airline said.
Mobile phone footage of the aftermath of the incident showed injured people lying in the aisles, with packets of food and other items scattered on the floor.
“We were hurled up into the roof of the plane, it was practically impossible to hold on,” a passenger who gave her first name as Yevgenia reportedly said.
“It felt like the shaking wouldn’t stop, that we would just crash,” she added.
The pilot, Aleksandr Ruzov, said the turbulence was “impossible to predict”. He said the worst effects were felt at the back of the aircraft.
Aeroflot said in a statement: “None of the 27 passengers of the Boeing 777 that flew from Moscow to Bangkok has serious or life-threatening injuries, according to information from the medical institutions in Thailand’s capital that are treating the victims.
“Fifteen Russian Federation citizens and two citizens of Thailand currently remain hospitalised. The remaining passengers were discharged after a medical examination.”
The airline added that the turbulence that hit the Boeing 777 was “impossible to foresee”.
“The incident was caused by what is known in aviation as ‘clear-air turbulence’,” Aeroflot said.
“Such turbulence occurs without any clouds, in clear skies with good visibility, and weather radar is unable to alert of its approach.
“In such situations, the crew is unable to warn passengers of the need to return to their seats. There are around 750 cases of clear-air turbulence recorded in civil aviation every year.”