Five Lufthansa passengers and six crew members were injured after encountering “brief but severe turbulence” during a flight between Buenos Aires in Argentina and Frankfurt in Germany.
According to a Lufthansa spokesperson, the Lufthansa Boeing 747-8, registered D-ABYP, suffered turbulence while flying through an Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) on November 12, 2024.
The five passengers and six crew members received only minor injuries and were assisted by medical teams at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) after the Boeing 747 landed at 10:43, local time.
“Unfortunately, five passengers and six crew members suffered mostly minor injuries and were given medical attention immediately after the aircraft landed safely,” a Lufthansa spokesperson said.
The Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 left Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EZE) on November 11, 2024, around 18:00, and encountered turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean.
Lufthansa described the (ITCZ) as an “equatorial low-pressure trough that you have to fly through in this area. This means that there are air currents in this low-pressure trough that can cause turbulence”.
There were 329 passengers and 19 crew members aboard the Lufthansa flight which the spokesperson confirmed “was not in jeopardy at any time”.
In August 2024, an EVA Air flight to Taiwan was hit by severe turbulence during meal service, leaving six crew members with minor injuries.
And in May 2024, a passenger died, and more than 30 others have been injured after a Singapore Airlines plane hit severe turbulence on a flight between London and Singapore.
Lufthansa is one of the last airlines to continue operating the Boeing 747 after many carriers chose to retire the aircraft.
According to ch-aviation, Lufthansa currently operates 17 Boeing 747-8s and six 747-400s. D-ABYP was the 1500th Boeing 747 in the world.