Five people were injured on a United Airlines flight Sunday amid turbulence so severe that multiple flights were diverted to Waco Regional Airport in central Texas.
United 5690 had departed Springfield, Missouri, en route to Houston at 4:48 p.m. and made an emergency landing an hour and 40 minutes later at Waco Regional Airport. Two American Airlines flights that had been bound for Dallas-Fort Worth were also diverted to Waco due to weather, the airport’s interim director of aviation, Michael Reisman, told KXXV-TV.
The United plane flew straight into an approaching storm system as it crossed into Texas, according to KYTV, citing data from the flight-tracking website FlightAware. It gained altitude and changed speed before landing in Waco, the news outlet said.
A total of 32 people were aboard, including 29 passengers, McLennan County Office of Emergency Management coordinator Ryan Dirker told the Springfield News-Leader. The five injured were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the rest of the United passengers were stuck at the airport for a while “trying to figure out next steps” 180 miles short of their destination, Dirker said.
The United plane was to remain grounded for a day or two for inspection before flying again, Reisman told KCEN-TV. FlightAware on Monday morning showed the United flight taking off from Waco at 1:17 a.m. and landing in Houston at 1:45 a.m. local time. It was not clear whether it was the same plane.
The American flights continued on to their destination, the airline told CNN.
“Due to storms at DFW, two flights briefly diverted to Waco and later re-departed,” a spokesperson told CNN.
The United flight was operated by SkyWest, which said the two airlines were “making sure all customers get the care they need and are working to line up new transportation options for everyone on this flight,” according to KCEN.
The mishap comes after a string of sometimes deadly incidents over the past several weeks, ranging from the collision of a passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River that killed 67 people last month, to the crash landing of a Delta flight that flipped upside-down in Toronto, which everyone survived.
