Qatar Airways: 12 people were injured during air disturbances on the Doha-Dublin flight

CNN
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12 people were injured after a Qatar Airways plane from Doha to Dublin hit turbulence on Sunday.

The flight, which landed in Dublin shortly before 1pm local time, was met by emergency services, including airport police and the fire and rescue department.

According to a statement issued by Dublin Airport, six passengers and six crew members were injured in the accident, eight of whom were taken to hospital after evaluation. The statement stated that Qatar Airways flight QR017 encountered turbulence while flying over Türkiye.

Dublin Airport said it was assisting passengers and staff and that operations were not affected. The airport said the plane’s return flight to Doha, flight QR018, is scheduled to take off as expected, although its takeoff will be delayed.

Qatar Airways said, in a statement to CNN, that the flight landed safely in Dublin, but “a small number of passengers and crew sustained minor injuries during the flight and are now receiving medical care.”

The statement continued: “The matter is now subject to an internal investigation.” “The safety and security of our passengers and crew is our top priority.”

This comes days after 104 passengers were injured and a man with heart disease was killed Singapore Airlines flight Which was hit by severe disturbances.

Flight SQ321 from London to Singapore was flying at 37,000 feet on Tuesday When the plane It fell sharply before rising Several hundred feet, according to flight tracking data. Then it repeatedly went down and up for about a minute.

About 65,000 airplanes experience moderate turbulence each year in the United States, and about 5,500 experience severe turbulence. However, these numbers may be expected to grow.

Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Reading in the UK, told CNN in 2022 that he believes climate change is modifying disturbances.

“We ran some computer simulations and found that extreme disturbances could double or triple in the coming decades,” Williams said.

The findings, later confirmed by observations, highlight a type of turbulence called “clear-air turbulence,” which is not associated with any visual evidence such as storms or clouds. Unlike regular disorders, it strikes suddenly and is difficult to avoid.

Singapore Airlines had previously said that its flight encountered sudden turbulence. Its spokesman said on Sunday that investigations were continuing. A previous CNN analysis of satellite data found that the flight entered an area where thunderstorms develop, which can produce turbulence.

It is not yet known what type of turbulence the Qatar Airways plane was exposed to.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the cause of the disruption to the Singapore Airlines flight has not yet been determined and investigations are ongoing. A previous version also made a mistake in the number of the Qatar Airways flight that witnessed disturbances. The flight was QR017.