The crew of the Lufhtansa flight that was diverted to Washington owing to "severe turbulence' has now ordered the passengers of the flight to delete all photos and videos of the incident.
Speaking to the Insider, a passenger from the flight said that she banged her head on the plastic tray table case on the seat in front of her during the first major drop.
She also mentioned that she flew out of her seat and hit her head again on the aircraft's ceiling once the plane steadied and started to ascend quickly
"It felt like it hit the eye of a tornado. It would not stop. I thought we were going down", she said.
The incident occured earlier this month when Lufthansa's Flight 469 from Austin, Texas headed to Frankfurt, Germany was diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport. Seven people on board were taken to area hospitals as well.
She also added that she sustained a concussion and a bruised arm, along with a potentially fractured hip, and claimed her injuries were more severe than the "minor injuries" the airlines said passengers faced.
She alleged that as the plane made the descent to Dulles, a flight attendant announced all pictures and videos to be deleted. She added that the same attendant made a second announcement shortly after the first, under the pretext of 'protecting other passengers' privacy'.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration the Airbus A330 reported severe turbulence at an altitude of 37,000 feet (about 11,300 meters) while flying over Tennessee.
Among the passengers was Camila Alves, wife of Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey. Speaking on the incident, the 41-year-old shared the terrifying moment her jet hit turbulence as the incident reportedly caused a number of injuries to fellow passengers.
The couple were destined for Frankfurt in Germany when the incident occurred 37,000 feet above Tennessee.
Turbulence continues to be a major cause of accidents and injuries during flight, according to a 2021 NTSB report. Turbulence accounted for 37.6 per cent of all accidents on larger commercial airlines between 2009 and 2018.
Turbulence is essentially unstable air that moves in an unpredictable fashion. Most people associate it with heavy storms. But the most dangerous type is clear-air turbulence, which can be hard to predict and often with no visible warning in the sky ahead.
(With agency inputs)