Multiple passengers were injured when a Ryanair Boeing 737MAX flying from Birmingham, England, to Tenerife in the Canary Islands suddenly encountered mid-air turbulence while flying at 37,000 feet off the north coast of France on Sunday afternoon.
There are some reports that the turbulence struck the four-year-old aircraft just moments after passengers spotted a fighter jet passing the plane at high speed.
Ryanair Boeing 737MAX makes emergency descent to 10,000 feet
Ryanair flight FR-1121 departed Birmingham International Airport (BHX) at around 3 pm on December 28 for what should have been a routine four-hour flight to Tenerife.
Shortly after departure, Ryanair’s high-capacity variant of the Boeing 737MAX climbed to a cruising altitude of 37,000 feet as it headed south towards France.
As the plane was flying towards the coast of Brittany, cabin service had already got underway. Flight attendants were in the aisles with service carts, and passengers had been permitted out of their seats as there was no forecast turbulence.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the plane experienced a sudden jolt and then, according to one eyewitness, rotated to the right. Passengers and crew were sent flying, with some reports suggesting that one woman took the force of a service cart slamming into her.
Multiple passengers were injured, and the pilots declared an emergency, initially descending to 10,000 feet as they performed a U-turn and returned to Birmingham Airport, where the emergency services had been put on standby to meet the aircraft.
Eyewitnesses claim the turbulence occurred after a fighter jet passed the plane
While bad weather in the area had not been forecast at the time of the incident, there could be multiple other reasons for a turbulence incident.
That being said, one eyewitness claims the pilot told the passengers that they had “run into another airplane’s turbulence which was seven miles ahead.”
“Three passengers I’ve spoken to said they saw a fighter jet going in the opposite direction, just before the plane twisted 45’ and dropped, causing passengers to leave their seats and hit their heads,” the person wrote on the reputable accident reporting site, the Aviation Herald.
Wake turbulence from a passing fighter jet is, however, just a theory into what caused this incident, and accident investigators have yet to comment.
Ryanair responds
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Ryanair did not directly address reports that the turbulence was caused by a passing fighter jet, but the airline said in a statement:
“FR1121 from Birmingham to Tenerife on 28th December returned to Birmingham Airport shortly after take-off due to air turbulence. The aircraft landed normally before passengers disembarked and returned to the terminal, where a small number of passengers were provided with medical assistance.”
Ryanair was able to find a replacement aircraft and crew, and the flight was able to continue at around 9 pm on Sunday.
Emirates A380 superjumbo flipped a private jet ‘upside down’
How serious can wake turbulence be?
In a serious incident in January 2017, one passenger on a private jet was badly injured when an Emirates Airbus A380 superjumbo flying from Dubai to Sydney overflew a 12-person Canadair Challenger 604 private jet with a reported clearance of just 1,000 feet.
The wake turbulence from the double-deck A380 forced the small business jet into an uncontrolled 10,000-foot free-fall, flipping the aircraft at least three times as the power in both engines was lost.
Luckily, the pilots managed to regain control and make an emergency landing at Muscat airport in Oman. One passenger was rushed to the hospital, and the aircraft was written off due to the severe damage it sustained.
