Turbulence Injures 7 on Plane

In what was described as “an earthquake at 35,000 feet,” seven people on a Continental Airlines DC-10 were injured Thursday when the Hawaii-bound plane hit turbulence over the Pacific Ocean, prompting a return to Los Angeles International Airport.

Four of the seven were among the 270 passengers aboard Flight 75, bound Thursday afternoon for Honolulu. The three others were among 10 flight attendants and a crew of three in the cockpit, authorities said.

Three of the injured suffered broken bones, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Alan Masumoto said. The others complained mostly of neck and back pain. None of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening, he said.

In an unrelated incident later Thursday, a Seoul-bound Asiana Airlines 747 lost power in one of four engines shortly after departing LAX and returned to the airport, landing without incident at 4 p.m. None of the 181 passengers were injured; all were put on a later flight Thursday night, according to Asiana’s Los Angeles station manager, Dong Lee.

Passengers who staggered off the Continental plane when it returned to LAX said it was a scary ride. Nearly an hour after the plane had landed safely, some passengers were still trembling as they spoke with camera crews and reporters swarming around Gate 62.

“The plane just immediately fell,” said Adam Paul, 25, of Provo, Utah. “It felt like we’d fallen three to four stories. People were glued to the ceiling--and then they just dropped.”

“I thought it was going to be all over permanently,” said Ed Shaw, 59, of Woodland Hills. “I’ve been through a half-dozen earthquakes, and this was an earthquake at 35,000 feet. I’m thrilled to death I’m still alive and I’m here and well.”

The plane departed Los Angeles about 12:15 p.m., according to Continental’s general manager at the airport, Jay Wedding.

About an hour later, the flight was ascending through 31,000 feet when “the incident occurred,” the airline said in a statement Thursday afternoon. Preliminary indications suggested that the plane ran into “clear-air turbulence”--that is, an unanticipated patch of rough air.

Turbulence is the primary cause of in-flight injuries to passengers; about half of the 17 severe cases of turbulence reported in 1997 resulted in injuries, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In December, one passenger was killed and 83 hurt when a United Airlines flight from Tokyo to Honolulu hit severe turbulence.

Wedding said the seat belt sign was on when Flight 75 encountered rough air. It had been on for the entire flight, he said.

The plane suffered no apparent damage, Wedding said.

Upon their return to LAX, the injured were carried out on stretchers--first out the left rear door of the jet and onto a hydraulically lifted United Airlines food service truck. The lift gently lowered the truck to the ground, where paramedics ferried the injured to waiting Fire Department vans.

Two of the seven were taken to Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey: a 26-year-old man with a broken leg and jaw and a 37-year-old man with a broken leg.

Two other people were taken to Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood: a 45-year-old woman with a broken leg and back pain and a 41-year-old man with neck and back pain.

And three were taken to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood: a 33-year-old woman with neck and back pain, a 65-year-old man with back pain and a 25-year-old man with what Masumoto, the Fire Department spokesman, called an injured knee.

Names of the injured were not released. Continental did not say which of the seven were its three employees.

The other passengers who had been on board the plane were given the option of boarding another flight to Hawaii later Thursday or, Continental said, “accommodated at local hotels.”

Shaw, who was with his wife and son en route to a weekend wedding in the islands, said they were all getting back on a plane.

Wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a light fedora with a colorful pink band, he declared: “I got my suntan lotion and I’m going!”