Four Injured as Jetliner Plunges 8,000 Feet

Four passengers aboard a Delta jetliner en route to Kennedy International Airport on Thursday afternoon suffered minor injuries when the plane plunged 8,000 feet as it hit a patch of severe turbulence above North Carolina, officials said.

Delta Flight 62, an A-310 Airbus bound from Atlanta with 72 passengers and a crew of nine, ran into turbulence just before 4 p.m., sending the plane into a plunge that lasted several minutes as it fell from an altitude of 37,000 feet to 29,000 feet, said officials with the Federal Aviation Administration.

“When the plane first hit the turbulence, I thought . . . it’s going to crash,” passenger John Train of Atlanta told reporters after the flight landed safely.

“They told us over the PA system that there was going to be turbulence,” said his wife, Sally. “But it happened all of a sudden.”

Concerned that the jet might have suffered structural damage, emergency crews were on hand for the landing. But the plane touched down without incident.