Delta Airlines passengers were left with burst eardrums and nosebleeds after their plane suddenly lost pressure and crashed on Tuesday.
Passengers on a flight from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Portland, Oregon, felt the cabin depressurize before the plane descended rapidly, according to KSL.
In four and a half minutes the plane descended from 10,300 meters to 7,600 meters, at a speed of about 10 meters per second.
The Boeing 737-900 plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Salt Lake City due to pressurization problems, Delta Airlines wrote in a statement.
“I looked over at my husband and he had both hands over his ears, you know, he was kind of leaning forward,” flyer Caryn Allen told the newspaper.
Allyn added that she “looked down the aisle a row from me, and there was a man sitting there who clearly had a bloody nose, and people were trying to help him.”
Delta passengers were injured after a Sunday flight experienced pressurization issues
The Boeing 737-900 flying from Utah to Portland had to return to Salt Lake City when pressure dropped
Another passenger, Jaci Purser, told KSL that it felt like someone was stabbing her ear because of the pressure in the cabin. She said she “grabbed my ear, and when I pulled my hand back, there was blood on it.”
The plane landed at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday and emergency services were on hand to treat the injured.
Ten people required medical treatment or evaluation by ambulance when they disembarked from the plane.
Purcer added that once the plane landed, she was diagnosed with a ruptured eardrum. Paramedics gave her antibiotics, nasal steroid sprays and decongestants.
Delta Air Lines said in a statement that the plane returned to service on Monday.
The airline said: ‘We sincerely apologise to our customers for their experience on flight 1203 on 15 September.
“The crew followed procedures to return to SLC, where our teams on the ground supported our customers with their immediate needs.”
Retired Delta pilot Valerie Walker told KSL that flights typically keep cabin pressure the same.
She told the news agency: ‘It’s something the plane does automatically, and we monitor it to see if it’s not doing what it’s supposed to do.’
“I suspect they saw and heard the cabin pressurization problem and asked air traffic control to fly over the Great Salt Lake, because that was visual, because they had enough time and permission to do our emergency procedures and try to figure out what was wrong.”
Walker told the newspaper she had had similar experiences before, but never as severe as Sunday’s.
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to investigate the incident, it said wptv.
The cause of this problem has not been disclosed.