Social media reports showed Qatar Airways flight 1499 experiencing extreme turbulence on Sunday while over Somalia. The Doha to to Kilimanjaro flight reportedly experienced extreme weather conditions, and photos show damage to the cabin. Apparently one passenger was hospitalized, with a suggestion that the passenger was taken from Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya.
A Qatar Airways flight from Doha encountered severe turbulence over Somalia due to adverse weather conditions. As a result, the aircraft sustained internal damage, and at least one passenger required medical attention and was transferred to a Nairobi hospital for treatment. pic.twitter.com/81afJnQXrd
— DP (@DanChepta) May 6, 2024
Oddly, Kenya’s airports authority claims this never happened. While they specifically refute the claim that the plane landed in Nairobi, I haven’t seen that noted online.
2/2: We urge the public to exercise caution and verify the accuracy of information before sharing it on social media platforms. Spreading false information can cause unnecessary panic and confusion among travelers and the general public. pic.twitter.com/DY6xsDj9kE
— Kenya Airports Authority (@KenyaAirports) May 6, 2024
Flight tracking shows that the plane continued to Dar-es-Salaam and then operated back to Doha later in the day.
Whole story appears suspicious, because Airbus airplanes (A333 per Flight Aware) never have turbulence encounters. If this was a Boeing airplane, incident would have made world headlines.
Kenya must have thought that was a Delta flight and since everyone knows that extreme turbulence never happens on a premium airline like Delta, the whole thing must be a mistake.
Per FlightAware it was an A332 (A40-DC) on Sunday, May 5, 2024. If someone was injured on the flight (no particular indication from the FlightAware data such as speed change or altitude change), they could have well been transferred to Nairobi, Kenya for medical treatment, but not necessarily by a flight. A map indicates that Nairobi is closer to Kilimanjaro International Airport than Dar es Salaam is. The problem with the story being real is that it doesn’t seem to be that the aircraft could have been repaired fast enough to continue it’s loop through Dar es Salaam and then later to Doha. Unless they were willing to fly an aircraft with damage in the passenger cabin. The same aircraft flew the same route the next day. Maybe the interior photos were from another flight with a dialog indicting this flight instead.
Why would the Kenya Airports Authority even take offense at this? Nobody blames them if there was turbulence in the sky over their country. The flight wasn’t even scheduled to land in Kenya; Kilimanjaro International Airport is in Tanzania. Even if the flight did have to make an emergency landing in Kenya, that’s not the fault of the airports authority there.
I was on that flight. I was one of the physicians on board that treated the injured. The injuries were mostly very minor. I can’t imagine that the plane was then flown on the Dar Es Salaam in the condition the interior was in. There was one passenger that appears to have been taken to a local hospital. I advised many to get x-rays as they were complaining of neck pain. One lady I saw may have had a rib fracture. So many people hit the ceiling. I was grateful that more weren’t severely injured seeing that the incident occurred just as breakfast was beginning to be served and the carts both went up and hit the ceiling as well. Could have been worse for sure.
Thank your for your report @Curtis. I suppose that the airplane could have completed it’s route without passengers, dropping off freight and luggage in Dar es Salaam and possibly getting fuel for the rest of the loop. If you can, please describe what happened prior to and during the turbulence. Was it one drop or several or a drop and recovery? Was there shaking before the drop? Was the weather outside bad? Was it clear-air turbulence?
I was also on this flight – it landed in *Tanzania* at Kilimanjaro airport. This was supposed to be a stop-off before the plane continued on to Dar Es Salaam I don’t know whether it continued on to Dar Es Salaam, as it was supposed to, as I disembarked in Kilimanjaro. But I can certainly confirm the photographs are an accurate scene from inside the plane and many people on board sustained neck and head injuries after hitting the ceiling when the plane suddenly dropped. I’m happy to hear that a doctor on board assessed these to be mostly minor as it was hard to tell in the aftermath. Despite being very shaken up by the experience I was uninjured thanks to wearing a seatbelt when it happened.