Turkish Airlines confirmed on Sunday that its TK01 Istanbul – New York Flight encountered an unusual turbulence about 40 minutes before landing at New York JFK Airport.
“The Boeing 777 type aircraft, which had taken off from Istanbul with 326 passengers and 18 crew members, landed safely at the airport at 5.35 p.m. Saturday, after experienced turbulence,” the statement made by Turkish Airlines said.
Turkish Airlines stated that 28 passengers onboard and 2 cabin staff, who had sustained non-life-threatening injuries, were taken to the hospital upon the flight’s landing, for their overall control.
Among 28 passengers, who were referred to the hospital, 18 were discharged after their treatment, and 10 of passengers are still under control, another statement added.
“Since there were not seen any technical failure on the TC-JJG tail-coded aircraft, which were exposed to unforeseen adverse weather conditions turbulence before landing at New York JFK Airport, during the necessary technical examinations, the given airplane departed from JFK on time for operating its scheduled flight between New York (JFK) and Istanbul (IST),” according to a follow-up statement about TK12 New York (JFK) – Istanbul (IST) Flight.
Turkish Airlines expressed its regrets about this unfortunate experience and stated that it closely monitors the health status of injured passengers and is making resources available to them.