
(NBC) – Dozens of passengers on a Turkish Airlines flight were injured when the plane encountered severe turbulence on its approach to the JFK airport Saturday night.
The Port Authority said that 29 passengers and crew were hurt, but those injuries were not life-threatening.
Passengers who were on the flight described a range of injuries, including bloody noses and possible broken bones.
The Boeing 777 flight from Istanbul had 326 passengers and 21 crew members onboard.
The crew’s urgent request to descend could be heard in air traffic control recordings, along with their advisory that a crew member had possibly broken legs and would need assistance upon landing.
Emdadul Haque, a passenger on plane, said, ” It started, I was in the bathroom, so it started to go all the way down, so I fell down on the floor and I was all the way up to the ceiling, I kept jumping, jumping up and down and I was looking for the door, I can’t see the door. And I just unlock it and I came to my wife, my wife is pregnant and she fell down, I see she is on the floor.”
Thomas Perpepaj, a mother on the plane, said, “Over Boston, there was some turbulence. I don’t know how far the plane dropped. This is why you’ve got the FDNY and the ENS here to keep tight lipped about it. So we’re not sure where our family members are coming out of. Everyone here is not talking. But apparently, something happened on this plane tonight.”
Other area pilots had noted turbulence as well, and pilots at nearby Newark airport were warning passengers to prepare for turbulence on flights about to depart.