Ten injured after London-bound plane packed with passengers hits turbulence

. Credit: .

Turbulence was so severe on a packed jumbo jet that nine passengers and a cabin crew member ended up being injured.

An accident report revealed how the London-bound Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 ran into extreme turbulence after the pilots' study of weather radar. He altered course to avoid bad weather on their intended route.

But having altered course, crew and passengers ran into "a brief period of severe turbulence" with the injured crew member and two of the injured passengers having to be treated in hospital after the aircraft, which had 400 passengers on board, safely landed at Gatwick.

Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 Credit: PA

  • The incident happened in the early hours of November 14 last year when the aircraft, which had taken off from Montego Bay in Jamaica, was around 345 miles south of St John's in Newfoundland

  • After their monitoring of the weather radar, the pilots had requested a deviation to the left to avoid the weather

One of the passengers suffered a knee injury and the cabin crew member, who was in the crew rest area at the time, had head and neck injuries. At one point the turbulence was so severe that a stewardess had difficulty securing herself in her harness.

Most passengers were already seated with their seatbelts fastened.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said that as the aircraft flew on

Once it was over, the cabin crew attended to the injured passengers and crew member, assisted by medically-qualified volunteers from among the passengers.

After the plane landed, medical staff came on board and treated the injured passengers.