45 hurt in Manila-Tokyo flight Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 03:23:00 02/21/2009 Filed Under: Air and Space Accidents, Air safety Close this TOKYO—Forty-five people were injured, at least three seriously, on Friday when a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747 hit turbulence on the Manila-Tokyo leg of a US-bound flight, airport officials said. Among the most seriously injured were three Philippine nationals, two men and one woman, Jiji news agency reported, quoting local police. Ambulances took the injured to local hospitals after the jet with 408 passengers and 14 crew landed at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo at 12:19 p.m. (11:19 a.m. in Manila), an airport official said. The plane took off from Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) at around 6:40 a.m. The flight, a favorite among Filipino-Americans residing in the midwest and the East Coast, was set to continue on to Los Angeles after a stopover. “The latest information we have is that 39 passengers were injured in addition to six crew members,” said Toshiaki Nohara, a spokesperson for Narita Airport Authority, which runs the airport. In an AP report, Kenichi Fujii, a fire department official, said 47 people suffered injuries, none of them life-threatening. He had no further details. In a statement issued in Manila, Northwest Airlines confirmed the incident, saying 25 passengers sustained “minor injuries.” However, the airline did not identify the nationalities of the injured passengers. ‘I thought I would die’ A middle-aged woman passenger, speaking in accented Japanese, told the TBS television network: “The person in front of me flew up to the ceiling. The person behind me collapsed and looked unconscious.” A young man, also speaking in halting Japanese, said: “I was really scared. I thought I would die. The plane shook so much, and my whole body hovered up in the air. Inside the cabin, everybody was screaming loudly.” Northwest Airlines spokesperson Masashi Takahashi said: “Air turbulence is believed to be the cause. The turbulence occurred 25 to 30 minutes before landing, when the seat belt light was on.” “During the flight, we received a message from the pilot saying two or three people were injured. But [the pilot] probably assessed that an emergency landing was not necessary,” Takahashi said. “It is possible that the people injured did not have their seatbelts on, otherwise all of the 422 (people aboard) would have been injured as well.” Screams Television images in Japan showed medical workers carrying two passengers off the plane, one on a stretcher and one in a wheelchair, while one young girl could be seen with a bandage around her head. A 55-year-old US passenger said he heard screams when the plane suddenly descended before rising again, some 30 minutes before landing, the Kyodo news agency reported without naming the man. Some people who did not have their seatbelts fastened hit their heads on the ceiling and injured their necks, he reportedly said. The accident occurred while the Boeing 747-400 aircraft was circling over waters off Japan’s Chiba Prefecture awaiting permission to land at Narita airport, officials said. AFP and Kristine L. Alave