Camila Alves McConaughey shared her distressing experience on board a Lufthansa flight last week that was diverted due to “significant turbulence” and caused seven people to be hospitalized.
The model and designer, who is married to actor Matthew McConaughey, posted a video on Instagram Thursday of the disheveled scene inside the Airbus A330, which shows trays of food and plates strewn about the cabin and galley.
“On Flight last night, I was told plane dropped almost 4000 feet, 7 people went to the hospital, Everything was flying everywhere. To respect the privacy of those around me that’s all I am showing but the plane was a CHAOS And the turbulence keep on coming,” Alves McConaughey wrote in her post.
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Lufthansa Flight 469 had taken off from Austin, Texas, for Frankfurt, Germany, when it was diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport.
Airbus A330 reported severe turbulence at an altitude of 37,000 feet, the Associated Press reported. It was flying over Tennessee at the time. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
“Thank God everyone was safe and ok,” Alves McConaughey wrote. She thanked the hotel staff where they spent the night after their travel plans were disrupted, noting she and her husband made it to the bar “1 minute before closing.”
Lufthansa said in a statement that the brief but severe clear-air turbulence led to the unscheduled landing as a precautionary measure. There were 172 passengers on board.
On Friday, a business jet encountered heavy turbulence over New England, resulting in a rare passenger death. A Bombardier Challenger 300 flying from Keene, N.H., to Leesburg, Va., was forced to land at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut.
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board on the fatal incident is expected within the next several weeks, a spokeswoman said.
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Turbulence is “air movement created by atmospheric pressure, jet streams, air around mountains, cold or warm weather fronts or thunderstorms,” according to the FAA.
“It can be unexpected and can happen when the sky appears to be clear,” according to the FAA. “Turbulence can give an airplane a sudden jolt that can injure passengers and flight crew members who aren’t buckled in.”
Turbulence-related accidents, according to a 2021 NTSB report, are “the most common type of accident involving air carriers.” Most of the accidents reported from 2009 through 2018 “resulted in one or more serious injuries but no aircraft damage,” the report said.
“Over the past decade, the NTSB has determined the probable cause for numerous turbulence-related accidents and has issued safety recommendations for improving weather forecasting, dissemination of weather reports, and air traffic management practices to reduce the likelihood of aircraft encounters with turbulence,” the NTSB said in its report.
Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com. Follow her @shannonlarson98.