Blood-soaked Towel as Passengers Hospitalized After Turbulence On Miami-Buenos Aires Flight

When the seat belt sign is on, wear your seat belt. When the seat belt sign is off, but you’re in your seat wear your seat belt.

Yesterday’s Aerolineas Argentinas flight AR1303 from Miami to Buenos Aires provided a strong reminder of this important lesson. Our of 192 passengers on board 15 were injured in turbulence after the plane reached cruising altitude, including 8 who were taken to the hospital on arrival in Buenos Aires.

Here’s what the cabin looked like:

And here’s an image from the galley:


Credit: @serdominguez

In addition to passenger injuries the aircraft suffered damage as well.


Credit: @serdominguez

Here’s video of the aftermath inside the cabin. There appears to be a blood-stained towel at the outset of the footage, followed by a flight attendant working to clean up the aisle.

According to the airline,

The incident occurred in the flight phase called ‘cruise’ and was immediately reported by the commander in charge of the aircraft.

The company arranged its medical equipment at the arrival of the flight to assist those passengers who suffered blows or bruises due to the sudden movements that this type of atmospheric conditions cause.

Once the turbulence zone was crossed, the crew in charge of the flight dedicated to assist the injured passengers and to relieve the general condition of the 192 passengers.

…Upon arrival, the medical assistance teams carried out the corresponding health care and applied the necessary care to each of the affected persons.

In the same way, those responsible for human factors of Aerolineas Argentinas were present to provide containment and meet the particular needs of passengers.

I’m genuinely surprised the aircraft did not divert to address the medical needs of passengers who were injured.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. I am also surprised this flight did not divert. According to the translation the turbulence began at the first phase of the flight. With all the chaos in the galleys, how were meals served? MIA>EZE is a long flight without meals.

Comments are closed.