This is the moment a passenger is pulled out from the overhead bin after an Air Europa flight was hit by severe turbulence.
The shocking cell phone video the man’s feet dangling out of the compartment and being helped to the ground by two passengers before flight UX045, which was traveling from Madrid, Spain to Montevideo, Uruguay, was diverted and made an emergency landing in Natal, Brazil on Monday.
A two-year-old child was also pulled out from the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner’s ceiling after the turbulence was over.
The incident left 30 passengers with head, facial and spinal injuries. At least 23 passengers were rushed to Monsenhor Walfredo Gurgel Hospital.
Dr. Cecília Lagucci, a Bolivian national, was traveling with her husband and two children – her two-year-old son was ejected from his seat by the aircraft’s violent movement and trapped in the ceiling.
The impact of the turbulence experienced by Air Europa flight UX045 cause ceiling panels to fall inside the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Passengers rushed to help another traveler who was ejected from his seat and thrown into the airplane’s overhead bin area
‘My husband and I were looking for the little one, who is 2 years old,’ Dr. Lagucci said as quoted by Brazilian news outlet G1. ‘And we found him above the suitcases. Part of the plane collapsed and the child was up there crying. My husband had to go and bring him back down.’
Lagucci recalled being awoken and upside down when the Air Europa aircraft carrying 325 passengers encountered turbulence.
‘People were flying over me. I couldn’t get up,’ she said. ‘I felt the plane falling and I thought, ‘It’s going to stabilize now.’ But then it kept falling and falling. Until they stabilized the plane and I was able to get up.’
Cell phone footage showed sections of the airplane’s ceiling panels torn off, oxygen mask dangling above passenger seats and at least one seat that was completely damaged.
Air Europa flight UX045 bound from Madrid, Spain to Montevideo, Uruguay was diverted to Natal, Brazil on Monday after encountering severe turbulence that left 30 passengers injured
The passengers are expected to board a different Air Europa aircraft on Monday afternoon to continue their trip to Montevideo
A male passenger is helped out of the overhead bin after he was ejected from his seat after an Air Europa flight from Spain to Uruguay encountered turbulence
Air Europa posted a statement on X on Monday morning indicating that a new aircraft was dispatched from Madrid and that the passengers would be bussed from Natal to Recife before being flown to Montevideo.
‘We inform that our clients are moving to Recife, where they will stay and then travel to Montevideo. Natal was the airport that could serve passengers with medical needs the fastest,’ the airline said. ‘As it is not an AirEuropa destination, company personnel also travel to Natal and Recife to provide better service to our customers.
‘All people who have required health care are being treated in centers in Natal. Passengers will be notified with updated information about this operation. We will update with more information.’
A Venezuelan passenger Norys, who lives in Uruguay, told Uruguayan newspaper El Observador that the captain advised the passengers and crew to fasten their seatbelts because the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was about to encounter turbulence.
‘A long time after that, there was a very, very slight turbulence, it was barely felt, and from one moment to the next the plane abruptly falls and we all rise,’ Norys said.
‘Those who did not have a seatbelt flew and some remained hooked to the ceiling. It lasted like 3.5 seconds.’
Oxygen mask were spotted dangling inside the aircraft after an Air Europa flight encountered turbulence during its flight from Madrid, Spain to Montevideo, Uruguay early Monday
First responders treated passengers from Air Europa flight UX045 at Governador Aluízio Alves International Airport early Monday
A seat on Air Europa flight UX045 was severely damage as a result of turbulence
Passengers deplane Air Europa flight UX045 in Natal, Brazil after Monday’s emergency landing
She recalled that the injured passengers waited three hours lying on the aircraft floor before they were removed.
Juan, an Argentine lawyer who was returning to his home in Uruguay following a 40-day trip for leisure and business, said the captain told him that the aircraft 1,640 feet.
The feeling was terror, feeling like you are falling and that it doesn’t end. And you are aware that you are falling at an incalculable speed,’ Juan said. ‘
‘And you felt that it ended there, that you died,’ he added. ‘(That was) until we began to see on the screen that the plane began to rise.’
It was the second Air Europa incident in less than 24 hours after a flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv was diverted to Rome.
The captain declared an emergency after flight UX1301 entered Italian airspace while the Boeing 787-9 plane was descending from 37,000 feet, according to AirNav RadarBox, a real-time flight tracking system.
DailyMail.com reached out to Air Europa for comment.
