11 Injured When L.A.-Bound Flight Hits Turbulence : Air safety: A DC-8 from Jamaica with 202 passengers aboard is tossed about by updraft. A flight attendant is taken to a hospital with facial cuts.

A DC-8 jet chartered by Air Jamaica struck severe turbulence near the Mexican island of Cozumel while en route to Los Angeles on Saturday, sending a flight attendant hurtling into the cabin’s ceiling and causing injuries to 10 others.

Flight attendant Stanton Garduque, who suffered a cut over his eye and other facial cuts, was taken to a hospital after the plane landed at Los Angeles International Airport. Nine passengers and a second flight attendant were treated by paramedics and released, according to city Fire Department dispatcher Allen Barrios.

According to passengers and an airline spokesman, the plane was an hour out of Montego Bay, Jamaica, when it hit light turbulence. Then it suddenly plunged downward for four or five seconds, said Mark Mittleman, a passenger from Lawndale.

An airline spokesman said the plane had encountered a “sudden, unforeseen updraft which raised the plane 400 feet and then dropped it.”

Garduque slammed into the ceiling of the plane’s cabin with enough force to break the ceiling, Mittleman said. The attendant suffered cuts on his face, Mittleman said.

Another flight attendant, Thomas Kaniho, injured his foot when he smashed into a food cart. At least one passenger also struck the ceiling, Mittleman said.

The flight was full, with 202 passengers and 12 crew members. The incident occurred after drinks had been served and just as flight attendants were preparing to serve a meal, passengers said.

Mittleman and his wife, Michelle, said the injured man lay in the aisle of the cabin for three hours, until the plane arrived in Los Angeles.

Passenger Robert Wigchert, 28, of San Diego, said the turbulence was dramatic. “I’ve hit bad turbulence before over the Atlantic,” he said. “The difference was the shock of the hits. It was so much harder.”

The plane, which was chartered by Air Jamaica from Hawaiian Airlines, arrived in Los Angeles at 2:28 p.m. without further incident. The flight crew was from Hawaiian Airlines.

A member of the cockpit crew, who declined to be identified, said: “It wasn’t that bad. It scared people, but the injuries were minor.”

Mittleman said passengers became nervous when the plane hit more turbulence near Los Angeles. “From now on we’ll think twice about flying on another vacation,” Michelle Mittleman said.

Wigchert and his traveling companion, Debbie Wolf, said they had planned to fly on to San Diego. They elected to go by train instead.

Later Saturday, an American Airlines DC-10, en route to Los Angeles from Chicago, was struck by lightning as it approached Los Angeles International Airport, but it landed without injuries to passengers or damage to the plane, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

According to FAA duty officer Jerry Acosta, the plane was 65 miles east of the airport when the lightning struck. The flight landed at 4:56 p.m., he said. The plane had originated in Frankfurt, West Germany.