{"id":125401,"date":"2025-09-01T18:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T18:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125401\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T18:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T18:11:15","slug":"cabin-chaos-as-skywest-flight-drops-4400ft-in-seconds-sending-screaming-passengers-to-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125401\/","title":{"rendered":"Cabin chaos as SkyWest flight drops 4,400ft in seconds sending screaming passengers to hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MARTHA WILLIAMS, US NEWS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 10:04 EDT, 1 September 2025 | Updated: 10:59 EDT, 1 September 2025 <\/p>\n

Passengers on a flight from Colorado<\/a> to Texas plummeted more than 4,000 feet in under a minute, leading the aircraft to make an emergency landing and sending two people to the hospital.<\/p>\n

About 90 minutes into the flight from Aspen to Houston on Thursday, SkyWest Flight 5971 suddenly dropped from a cruising altitude of 39,000 feet to 34,650 feet due to bad weather around Fort Worth, Texas<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The violent turbulence jolted the 39 passengers on board, causing at least one to smash against the ceiling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We’re going to need a stretcher, and there is bleeding as well,’ a pilot said, according to air traffic control audio captured Thursday evening by LiveATC.net<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Austin, about 165 miles short of the original destination.<\/p>\n

Data from FlightRadar 24 <\/a>shows that the flight altered course toward Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and began a rapid descent of over 25,000 feet in six minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oxygen masks dropped due to the turbulence, while purses and other personal belongings could be seen strewn about the aisles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Someone in front of me hit the ceiling several times,’ one passenger told\u00a0ABC<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The violent turbulence aboard\u00a0SkyWest Flight 5971\u00a0 jolted the 39 passengers on board, causing at least one to smash against the ceiling<\/p>\n

\"Oxygen <\/p>\n

Oxygen masks dropped due to the turbulence, while purses and other personal belongings could be seen strewn about the aisles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The passenger described how a grown man ‘flew up like a rag doll’ as turbulence rocked the cabin.<\/p>\n

‘I looked down and there was a cellphone in my lap that wasn’t mine,’ the passenger continued. ‘I guess it flew up and landed in my lap’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two passengers were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries ‘out of an abundance of caution,’ a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport told CNN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the plane landed, emergency responders evaluated all 39 passengers and four crew members for potential injuries, the spokesperson told CNN.<\/p>\n

‘Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of all onboard and we are working with our partner United to assist customers,’ a SkyWest spokesperson told CNN.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail has reached out to SkyWest and the FAA for additional comment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Share or comment on this article:
\n Cabin chaos as SkyWest flight drops 4,400ft in seconds sending screaming passengers to hospital<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By MARTHA WILLIAMS, US NEWS REPORTER Published: 10:04 EDT, 1 September 2025 | Updated: 10:59 EDT, 1 September…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,15284,3832,98,3,1022],"class_list":["post-125401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cnn","tag-colorado","tag-dailymail","tag-news","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}