Turbulence Terror: Over 300 United Passengers Endure ‘Six Flags’ Landing On Tel Aviv-Newark Flight

by Gary Leff

A United Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Newark encountered severe turbulence, leading to a diversion to Newburgh – Stewart airport in New Windsor, New York. The Boeing 787-10 with over 300 passengers on board was in final descent amidst bad weather, and hit high winds and turbulence. Pilots attempted a landing but had to abort approximately 750 feet above ground due to wind shear before rerouting to Stewart.

Emergency services responded to the aircraft in order to treating multiple passengers on-site for injuries from the turbulence. Six people were transported to a local hospital. Other passengers called it like a “roller coaster” and a “Six Flags” ride.

After approximately two hours on the ground, the plane continued to Newark. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. And this will get extra media because it’s (1) United and (2) a Boeing aircraft even though the issue was weather.

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 »

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Comments

  1. “ was in final descent ” – so everyone had their seatbelts on, tray tables up, personal items secured, and still injuries? Curious. I hope everyone is fine and no one knows a lawyer.

  2. Rides at six Flags aren’t that entertaining.

    Go to a better amusement park

  3. I would also like to know how the passengers were injured but many others were not. Probably by not being belted in properly or not having things stowed correctly. I was just on a ICN-LAX flight where a passenger in an aisle seat kept his backpack under his legs on takeoff. The lady next to him had to get out several times during the flight and he then decided to stow it correctly under the seat in front of him.

  4. Or, while the passengers were belted in, didn’t stop stuff from flying around the cabin. Unsecured backpacks, cell phones, etc.

    Those may have caused a few of the injuries

  5. More likely some passengers weren’t following crew instructions and were not belted in.

  6. This has been a rough week for airlines in NYC due to wind and several incidents are noteworthy; probably the WN landing attempt at LGA that was set up several hundred feet off the centerline even on the 2nd attempt. That could have been disastrous.

    and the FAA is investigating this UA incident on top of other events largely in March 2024 but which add on to a string of issues that go back over previous months.

    While no internet information can be assured to be completely accurate, there are posts that sources inside United’s training dept. in DEN are saying that UA is indeed under a 90 day no-growth requirement by the FAA with the term subject to being changed. If so, this is in line with what was previously said by UA’s MCO LEC and also reported by jonnyc which Gary picked up.

    Turbulence on landing isn’t that unusual but the fact that people were injured does require answers. If they were that close to the ground, no one should have been moving in the cabin, even FAs and a final safety check should have been done.

  8. Delta is a for profit company that can extract premium revenue from passengers due to its industry leading products and services. Turbulence is always avoided leading to an unparalleled experience for the discerning traveler.

  10. Surprisingly no one has claimed discrimination yet when flights from TLV got people injured but flights from FRA made an injury free landing.

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