Dozens injured after Air Canada flight headed to Australia encounters extreme turbulence

An Air Canada plane.
(Image credit: Joerg Koch/DDP/Getty Images)

An Air Canada flight headed to Sydney from Vancouver experienced extreme turbulence on Thursday afternoon, leaving at least 35 people with minor injuries.

There were 269 passengers and 15 crew members on board the plane, which encountered "un-forecasted and sudden turbulence" when it was about two hours past Hawaii, an Air Canada spokeswoman said. Once the turbulence struck, people were slammed into the ceiling, with passenger Stephanie Beam telling The Associated Press one woman hit it with enough force that she broke the casing of an oxygen mask. Another passenger, Alex MacDonald, said the flight attendants were passing out food when the turbulence started, and "they hit the roof as well."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.