• 25 of the 291 passengers and staff suffered from severe injuries.
• Six of the injuries were critical.
• The report classified the damage to the plane as modest.

When a smoke-like plume formed in front of the Airbus A330 on the journey from Phoenix to Honolulu on December 18, the pilot reported that the weather was clear.

Federal officials said Friday that a pilot on a Hawaiian Airlines flight claimed a plume-like cloud “shot” in front of the jet just before severe turbulence that wounded more than two dozen people and damaged the aircraft last month.

As they flew above a layer of cirrostratus clouds at an altitude of between 37,000 and 38,000 feet on December 18 from Phoenix to Honolulu, the pilot, a captain, reported that conditions were calm and on-board weather radar showed no turbulence, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the incident.

A cloud “came up vertically (like a smoke plume) in front of the aeroplane in a couple of seconds, and there was not enough time to deviate,” according to the report, just after 10 a.m., when the flight was 40 minutes from landing.
The plane, an Airbus A330, slammed into what the investigation describes as “severely convectively produced turbulence” within 1 to 3 seconds of the pilot informing the lead flight attendant of the impending weather, the study states.

The lead flight attendant told the flight crew that there were several injuries in the cabin “shortly after the turbulence-related upset,” according to the report.

According to officials at the time, 25 of the 291 passengers and staff on the Hawaiian Airlines flight suffered from cuts, bruises, nausea, and brain injuries.

According to the report, six of the injuries were critical. The report classified the damage to the plane as modest.

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