Flight attendant hurt in hard CA landing, feds say. ‘She thought the plane had crashed’
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant suffered a back injury during a hard landing in California last month, federal investigators said.
The incident, which left the attendant with a fractured vertebra in her upper back, happened during a flight from Oakland International Airport to John Wayne Orange County Airport on July 1, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The flight attendant said the “plane hit the ground with such force that she thought the plane had crashed,” according to the report.
The other 141 passengers aboard were unharmed, the report said.
“The Safety of Southwest’s Customers and Employees is always our top priority. We are concerned when any Employee is injured,” Southwest Airlines said in an emailed statement to McClatchy News.
The airline added that it reported the incident to the NTBS and also “conducted an internal review of the event.”
John Wayne Orange County Airport declined to comment and asked that inquires be directed to Southwest Airlines.
During the flight, the pilots “were aiming for the touchdown zone” because of the short runway, according to the report. They were “trying to fly the aircraft onto the runway with minimal floating.”
Nonetheless, it resulted in a hard landing, the report said.
The flight attendant was seated and buckled in a jumpseat during the hard landing, according to the report. When the plane landed, the attendant “immediately felt pain in her back, neck and she could not move.”
She was taken to a hospital, the report said, where she was “diagnosed with a compression fracture to her T3 vertebra.”
This story was originally published August 9, 2022 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Flight attendant hurt in hard CA landing, feds say. ‘She thought the plane had crashed’."
