A jet descending into Los Angeles from Honolulu dropped so abruptly that passengers came out of their seats, and four flight attendants were hurt.
United Airlines Flight 1157, a Boeing 777 that had left Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, ran into severe turbulence during its descent on Wednesday night, Oct. 21, 2026, and landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport. The plane carried 190 passengers and 10 crew members. United said no customers were injured and that the flight encountered the turbulence as it descended.
Coral Pena, a passenger on the flight, heard a loud bang when it hit. “We just started falling, and I was like, ‘Oh my God,'” she said.
Blood on Her Head and Leg
Marly Wadlington, a San Diego resident who was aboard, was watching a movie when the jet fell, she said. The drop felt long to her. The cabin shook, people were yelling, and she said the passengers were scared.
Tami Dandoy, a passenger from Lake Havasu, said she and others were lifted clear of their seats. Melinda Sabosky, another passenger, said a small bump sent them flying and that she could not tell how far the plane dropped. One passenger said her travel companion’s head came close to striking the cabin ceiling.
One passenger said she saw a flight attendant with blood on her head and leg. At least two of the injured crew members were left with neck and back injuries. In-flight communications indicated that the two are women, ages 62 and 58.
Steeper Than the Flight Before It
Flight data from roughly the last 20 minutes of the trip shows the 31-year-old Boeing 777 losing as much as 3,675 feet in a single minute. The jet plunged from 22,800 feet to 14,000 feet in two minutes and 30 seconds, then continued toward Los Angeles at a more conservative rate.
The United flight that made the same Honolulu-to-Los Angeles run before it never reached a descent rate steeper than 2,725 feet per minute, and held even that only briefly.
Flight audio indicated the crew had run into wake turbulence, which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) describes as the two counter-rotating vortices one aircraft generates and another then flies into. Those vortices are capable of causing injuries because they can roll a plane harder than its own controls can counter, according to the agency.
The Injured Crew Stayed Onboard
The plane touched down safely. Then it sat. It stayed on the tarmac for at least 30 minutes with the injured flight attendants still on board as it waited to reach a gate, and the flight arrived 20 minutes late, according to flight data.
United said four flight attendants were seen by medical personnel after the landing. At least one was taken to a hospital for further treatment.
“It only lasted a couple of seconds, it felt like wake turbulence, but we’re smooth now,” the pilot said in a radio call to air traffic control.