Passengers Hurt After Air Canada Plane Turbulence

An emergency medical services spokesman said six injured passengers were taken from the plane on stretchers.

Ten passengers were injured, six badly, on Thursday after an Air Canada plane bucked in midair on a flight across Canada, because of heavy turbulence, and made an emergency landing in Calgary.

A health authority official said the worst hurt passengers were in Calgary hospitals and were listed as stable, with non-life-threatening injuries. Others were treated and released.

"It happened very fast," a female passenger in the plane's front cabin told CBC Television.

"One side of the plane just went up a little bit sideways and then it just sort of went back down. And our friend was really hurt ... she flew up and hit the ceiling and (came) right back down."

Flight AC190, an Airbus A319 with 83 passengers and 5 crew aboard, was en route to Toronto from Victoria, British Columbia, when the plane jolted violently over the Rocky Mountains, throwing some passengers out of their seats.

The Air Canada plane made an unscheduled landing at 8:30 a.m. local time at Calgary International Airport, where it was met by 11 ambulances and more than 20 firefighting vehicles that had rushed to the tarmac.

An emergency medical services spokesman said six injured passengers were taken from the plane on stretchers.

Ten passengers were taken to local hospitals: six were seriously injured, four had minor injuries.

"None of the patients received any life-threatening injuries. Most of the injuries are the soft tissue, orthopedic, minor type," Rob Abernethy, Calgary's associate chief medical officer, told reporters outside one of three hospitals where the injured were sent.

"These are mostly musculoskeletal injuries one would normally see if someone was bounced around or having fallen," he said.

Air Canada, Canada's largest airline, confirmed there had been "an incident" aboard the flight, but a spokesman could not comment on the cause.

Turbulence is a frequent cause of injuries for airline passengers. Nine people were hurt in September when a WestJet Airlines flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, from Calgary hit a rough spot about 40 minutes before landing.

In August, 18 passengers on an Air Mauritius flight to Hong Kong were injured after the Airbus A343 encountered turbulence.

Air Canada's class B shares fell 34 Canadian cents, or 3 percent, to C$11.05 by midafternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1=$1.01 Canadian)