2 Seriously Injured as Plane Drops 4K Feet in a Minute

"We're going to need a stretcher, and there is bleeding as well. SkyWest 5971," a pilot told air traffic controllers Thursday night. The flight from Aspen, Colorado, to Houston was diverted to Austin after it hit severe turbulence, dropping 4,000 feet in under a minute, CNN reports. The airport said Austin-Travis County EMS evaluated the 39 passengers and four crew members for potential injuries and two adult passengers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

The airline said turbulence hit around 90 minutes after the flight took off from Colorado. An FAA report describes the injuries as serious and says the Embraer E175 aircraft also had a pressurization issue. In video from inside the cabin posted by KHOU11, a passenger can be heard saying that the flight is "diverting to Austin because someone's hurt really, really bad. In front of me, he hit the ceiling and he was flung over the seat."