Seven people have been taken to hospital after a Lufthansa flight was diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport following major turbulence.
Flight 469 was heading from Austin, Texas, to Frankfurt, Germany, but landed on Wednesday evening at the airport in Virginia.
Those taken to hospital had minor injuries, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokesman Michael Cabbage said.
Crew on the Airbus A330 reported severe turbulence at an altitude of about 11,300 metres while flying over Tennessee, said the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident.
Twitter user Stryker Fadhel shared a picture he said was taken by his wife, who was on the flight.
"People who didn't have the seat belts fastened got hurt mostly cause it came as surprise without seat belt sign on and [lightning] hit the plane badly," Mr Fadhel wrote.
Passenger Susan Zimmerman, 34, of Austin, said one of the pilots told passengers the plane had fallen about 305 metres during the turbulence.
“It felt like the bottom just dropped out from underneath,” she told AP.
“Everything was floating up. For a moment, you are weightless.”
The brief but severe turbulence occurred about 90 minutes after take-off and led to the unscheduled landing as a precaution, Lufthansa said.
The airline's ground staff were working to passengers on other flights, it said.
"The safety and well-being of passengers and crew members is Lufthansa’s top priority at all times," the airline said.
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 comes with no visible warning in the sky.
Turbulence continues to be a major cause of accidents and injuries during flights, a 2021 report by the US National Transportation Safety Board found.
Turbulence accounted for 37.6 per cent of all accidents on larger commercial airlines between 2009 and 2018, the report said.
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Thursday (All UAE kick-off times)
Sevilla v Real Betis (midnight)
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
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Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
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WORLD CUP SEMI-FINALS
England v New Zealand
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Wales v South Africa
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England 351/9
Pakistan 297
England win by 54 runs (win series 4-0)
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Virtual banks explained
What is a virtual bank?
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority defines it as a bank that delivers services through the internet or other electronic channels instead of physical branches. That means not only facilitating payments but accepting deposits and making loans, just like traditional ones. Other terms used interchangeably include digital or digital-only banks or neobanks. By contrast, so-called digital wallets or e-wallets such as Apple Pay, PayPal or Google Pay usually serve as intermediaries between a consumer’s traditional account or credit card and a merchant, usually via a smartphone or computer.
What’s the draw in Asia?
Hundreds of millions of people under-served by traditional institutions, for one thing. In China, India and elsewhere, digital wallets such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and Paytm have already become ubiquitous, offering millions of people an easy way to store and spend their money via mobile phone. Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are also among the world’s biggest under-banked countries; together they have almost half a billion people.
Is Hong Kong short of banks?
No, but the city is among the most cash-reliant major economies, leaving room for newcomers to disrupt the entrenched industry. Ant Financial, an Alibaba Group Holding affiliate that runs Alipay and MYBank, and Tencent Holdings, the company behind WeBank and WeChat Pay, are among the owners of the eight ventures licensed to create virtual banks in Hong Kong, with operations expected to start as early as the end of the year.
