Turkish Airlines Flight One, non-stop service from Istanbul landed at JFK Airport New York at 5.35pm Saturday night. Prior to landing the captain of this Boeing 777 with 326 passengers and 21 crew members on board declared an emergency.
The U.S. National Weather Service’s Aviation Weather Center had warned pilots of severe turbulence over New England on Saturday evening, and Turkish Airlines got caught.
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Four people were hospitalized, one with a broken leg The majority of the 29 passengers injured were treated for bumps and bruises in the terminal. The flight reportedly encountered severe turbulence about 45 minutes before landing.
The incident comes just hours after neighboring Newark Airport was forced to close all of its runways after a flight from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale made an emergency landing due to smoke in the cargo hold.
Turkish Airlines issued the following statement on TK01 IST – JFK:
Turkish Airlines confirms that its TK01 Istanbul – New York Flight encountered unusual turbulence about 40 minutes before landing at New York JFK Airport.
The Boeing 777 type aircraft, which had taken off from Istanbul with 326 passengers and 18 crew members, landed safely at the airport at 5.35pm Saturday, after experienced the said turbulence. 28 passengers onboard and 2 cabin staff, who had sustained non-life threatening injuries, were taken to the hospital upon the flight’s landing, for their overall control.
Turkish Airlines, the airline whose top priority is safety and passenger well-being, is deeply saddened by this unfortunate experience, and closely monitors the health status of injured passengers, and is making resources available to them.
