Turbulence injured 21 passengers on an Air Canada flight while flying over Alaska and caused what one passenger called the "flight from hell" to be diverted.
The Boeing 777 carrying 332 people was in the middle of a 14-hour flight from Shanghai in China to Toronto when it encountered rough conditions over Alaska on Wednesday afternoon, said the
Calgary Herald. Three of those hospitalized after an emergency landing in Calgary were children.
The flight had been scheduled to land at Toronto Pearson International Airport at 6:45 p.m. Eastern time, but made the emergency landing in Calgary at 3:23 local time, said
CTV News.
"It was the flight from hell," passenger Connie Gelber told the Herald. "It was frightening. Honestly, we didn't know if we were going to live or die."
Suzanne Caudry, a passenger and a dentist, said she was called on to assist the injured while the flight was preparing to divert.
"Being a periodontist had its advantages, because most of the concerns and bleeding were from the head and neck," Caudry told CTV News.
"Everybody was very kind. To me, it's a miracle we didn’t have worse happening. I mean, a total miracle that there were (332) people, and if (21) were injured then that means 330 were not injured and none of the flight crew were injured," said Caudry.
Air Canada said passengers were re-booked to Toronto on another flight.
"Our focus today has been on those passengers who have been injured in this incident and those other passengers on the aircraft for whom this has been a very unsettling experience," said Klaus Goersch, Air Canada's executive vice president and chief operating officer.
One passenger, Bing Feng, told
CBC News she was thinking about her parents and siblings when the turbulence struck.
"I heard lots of people screaming, like what you would hear on a roller-coaster," said Feng. "When you are in the situation, of course (you fear the worst). You saw all the oxygen masks drop."
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