What: Bahrain Air en route from Dubai to Bahrain
Where: Bahrain
When: April 30, 2010
Why: Those aboard the Bahrain Air Flight included passengers bumped from an earlier flight which had been cancelled without explanation.
On approach to Bahrain, the flight encountered turbulence described by passengers as severe, nightmarish and insane. The pilot performed a go around and made a second attempted landing. The turbulence was even worse, leading to the pilots to decide to divert to Doha.
Meanwhile, passengers were apparently screaming, crying, fainting and in general having public panic attacks. At some point, the pilot announced the diversion to passengers, although some passengers said they were unaware of what was going on, perhaps because they were too terrified to be listening. They could have used a soothing word from the cabin, but apparently that was not forthcoming.
As if being bumped from one flight, enduring turbulence at the destination and then having to divert to Doha wasn’t bad enough, a lot of flights were diverted to Doha due to the weather; and once they landed safely at Doha at 11:45 pm, the Qatar airport refused to allow the passengers to disembark. It was an hour before they were provided water. Around 3:00 a.m. the passengers were promised flights on the 7:00 am, 9:00 am, or 5:00 pm flights to Bahrain.
Some of these passengers are considering legal action for their treatment.
American Airlines flight AA-1204 encountered turbulence on the way to Miami, Florida, on February 5th.
