According to reports, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant who is yet to be named suffered a broken back in a hard landing. Apparently, the attendant thought the plane had crashed.
The Daily Mail has more;
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant suffered a compression fracture to a vertebra in her upper back during a hard landing in California, when the plane hit the runway so hard she thought it had crashed.
The woman, who was not named in the investigation, was seated in the aft jump seat when she felt pain in her back and neck and could not move after landing.
She was taken to a hospital where she was diagnosed with the fracture.
The safety board completed its investigation without saying what caused the hard larding.
The NTSB said none of the other 141 people on board the plane were injured in the incident at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California.
The pilots told investigators that they were aiming for the normal touchdown zone on the relatively short runway.
‘However, it ended up being a firm landing,’ the NTSB said in its final report, dated Friday.
Dallas-based Southwest said in a statement Monday: ‘We reported the matter to the NTSB in accordance with regulatory requirements and conducted an internal review of the event.’
A spokeswoman for the airline declined to provide further information when asked about the result of the internal investigation and whether the plane was inspected for evidence of damage that could occur during a hard landing.
The plane has been making several flights a day, according to tracking services.
Shortly after the 18-year-old Boeing 737-700 taxied off the runway, the pilots – a 55-year-old captain and 49-year-old co-pilot – were told about the injury to the flight attendant, who was in a jump seat at the back of the plane.
Flip to the next page for more…