Qatar Airways jet makes emergency landing in Azores
[LISBON] A Qatar Airways jet made an an emergency landing at a Portuguese military base in the Azores islands Sunday after heavy turbulence injured passengers.
The Boeing 777, bound from Washington to Doha, was re-routed during a storm to the Azores, a Portuguese territory in the North Atlantic, and landed at the Lajes Air Base.
Officials and witnesses said the plane had dropped steeply in altitude, hurling several passengers out of their seats and causing one traveller to suffer heart trouble.
"All the passengers were taken to a hotel in the evening and are due to depart on Monday morning," said an airbase spokesman, adding that several people onboard had "suffered light injuries during the turbulence".
"There was a medical emergency as one of the passengers had a cardiac complaint during the turbulence," a civil protection official in the Azores said. "He was hospitalised along with two other passengers."
Azad Essa, an Al Jazeera journalist who was on board, tweeted: "Some passengers bleeding after flung in the air, hitting the ceiling + landing in the aisles after plane suddenly lost altitude."
AFP
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Transport & Logistics
Nissan, Mazda roll out new models for China as they aim for comeback
VinFast chief plans to invest US$1 billion more from his fortune in EV maker
XPeng CEO says its software, AI upgrades to enter ‘super fast cycle’
Swedish manufacturer is latest to offer electric pleasure craft in Singapore
Mercedes says it will continue to invest in China tie-ups
Xiaomi locks in over 75,000 orders for SU7 car, targets over 10,000 deliveries in June