"Severe turbulence" experienced by a Southwest Airlines jet Wednesday on a flight from Chicago to Austin, Texas, forced the plane to be diverted to Kansas City.
Southwest Flight 1265 was traveling from Midway International airport to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport when the aircraft ran into the
turbulence, officials told NBC Chicago.
"Out of an abundance of caution, the flight crew elected to divert to Kansas City International Airport to conduct a post-turbulence check of the aircraft," Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish told NBC Chicago in a statement.
Nick Dunbar, a
passenger on the flight, told KXAN-TV he was sleeping when the turbulence hit.
"It felt like we hit a sharp
turn or tilt," Dunbar said to KSHB-TV. "My butt was coming off the seat along with pretty much all of the other passengers around us, so it got high anxiety pretty quick."
"They did a really good job of staying calm actually. They were just making sure everyone was in their seats and seatbelts were buckled," he continued.
Southwest said in its statement that there were no injuries and the aircraft was cleared to continue to Austin.
"They just kept telling us to stay in our seats because we were going to have turbulence . . . and then it was kind of quiet, and then all of a sudden that plane dropped and tipped," Robin Grulke, another passenger, told KXAN-TV.
"One thing it does is it makes people talk to each other and share — and the vibe after we got back on the plane was very relaxed and people were very friendly, people were cheering and they gave us free drinks," she continued.
WGN-TV reported in May that another Southwest Airlines flight from Boston to Chicago was forced to turn around and return to Boston because of strong turbulence, leaving some passengers and flight attendants injured.
When Southwest Flight 147 made it back to Boston, two flight attendants were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, WGN-TV noted. Two others were treated at the airport and released.