Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt hit by severe turbulence, 11 passengers injured

Eleven people were injured when a Lufthansa flight from Buenos Aires to Frankfurt hit severe turbulence while travelling over the Atlantic, the airline said on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, five passengers and six crew members suffered mostly minor injuries,” a Lufthansa spokesperson told Reuters in an email, confirming a report by the DPA news agency.

“The safety of the flight was not in jeopardy at any time,” the spokesperson added.

The injured received medical treatment immediately after the aircraft landed safely at its planned destination on Tuesday at 10.53 am (0953 GMT), according to the airline.

The Boeing 747-8 had been carrying 329 passengers and 19 crew members. The turbulence was brief and occurred in an intertropical convergence zone, the company said.

In May, a passenger died of a suspected heart attack and 30 were injured when a Singapore Airlines passenger plane was severely jolted by an air pocket over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar.