A United Airlines flight traveling from Tel Aviv to Newark landed instead at an airport north of New York City on Friday, officials said, after encountering severe winds and turbulence in an incident that left seven people injured.
NBC News reports that none of the injuries were serious after United Airlines Flight 85 landed at New York Stewart International Airport. The seven people injured were taken to local hospitals, NBC reports, and passengers’ complaints included nausea and chest pains. The flight was on a Boeing 787 jet, an official said.
It marked the 15th safety incident for United Airlines in just one month, making March a particularly rough stretch for the carrier. Regulators have already told United Airlines that they will be keeping a closer eye on the company’s procedures amid the uptick.
“Over the next several weeks, we will begin to see more of an FAA presence in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals and facilities,” Sasha Johnson, United’s vice president of corporate safety, wrote to the company’s staff in a memo earlier this month.
Boeing has had an even more brutal start to 2024. It was supposed to be the year when Boeing finally put its last 737 Max crisis behind it and CEO Dave Calhoun would be able to chart a path toward smoother skies. But then an ill-fated Alaska Airlines flight threw Boeing’s whole year into chaos. By late March, Calhoun was out.
Boeing stock is down about 24% so far in 2024, making it one of the worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500. And ratings agency Fitch says the company’s default risk is inching closer to junk bond territory.
United Airlines stock is up about 17% so far this year.
-Melvin Backman contributed to this article.