Video: 40 injured as turbulence forces Air Europa flight to make emergency landing

An Air Europa flight headed from Madrid to Montevideo, Uruguay, was diverted and made an emergency landing to a Brazilian airport on Monday after hitting severe turbulence, the carrier said, and 40 passengers experienced minor injuries, local health authorities said.

The plane, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with 325 people on board, was diverted in the early morning hours to the airport of Natal in northeast Brazil, where more than a dozen ambulances waited.

Forty passengers were taken to hospitals and clinics in Natal for treatment of "abrasions and minor traumas," the health secretariat of Brazil's Rio Grande do Norte state told AFP.

Eleven remained hospitalized at the Monsenhor Walfredo Gurgel hospital by Monday afternoon. Among the injured were nationals of Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Israel, Bolivia and Germany.

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Air Europa earlier said seven passengers had been treated for "various injuries" while an undisclosed number received medical attention for bruises.

It added a plane was being sent from Madrid to collect the passengers while the stricken Boeing is examined for damage in Natal.

They would first be taken to Recife elsewhere in Brazil, from where they will continue the journey to the Uruguayan capital, the company said.

X user Mariela Jodal, who said she was among the passengers, wrote on the platform that several people were injured in "very strong turbulence," but she was spared "thanks to the seat belt."

Images she posted showed broken ceiling panels, with pipes and wires visible, while one photo showed emergency vehicles with flashing lights waiting on the tarmac in Natal.

In May, a 73-year-old British man died and several other passengers and crew suffered skull, brain and spine injuries when a Singapore Airlines-operated Boeing 777 hit severe turbulence on a flight from London and was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.

A week later, 12 people were injured during turbulence on a Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 flight from Doha to Ireland.

Air safety experts say passengers are often too casual about wearing seatbelts, leaving them at risk if the plane hits unexpected turbulence.

• Deadly Singapore flight turbulence: 43 people still in hospital, 22 suffered spinal cord injuries