It has emerged that a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 operating a flight between New Orleans and Orlando diverted to Tampa yesterday due to injuries sustained from heavy turbulence.
Information has come out regarding the event, which has triggered an investigation by the FAA.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
WN4273 – New Orleans to Orlando…
Southwest Airlines flight WN4273 is a routine scheduled flight between New Orleans and Orlando.
The affected rotation that diverted to Tampa was operated by N567WN.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N567WN is a 21.5 year old Boeing 737-700 that originally started out life with WestJet in November 2002.
By October 2014, the aircraft was passed over to Southwest Airlines.
Furthermore, of the 737-700 variant, WN has 382 of them in the fleet, of which all but 13 are in active service.
Moreover, the average fleet age for the variant at the airline stands at 18.6 years.
Southwest Airlines flight WN4273 departed New Orleans at 0644 local time yesterday morning.
The aircraft climbed out and cruised towards Orlando normallly.
The Aviation Herald reports that the crew chose to divert to Tampa due to severe turbulence experienced onboard.
WN4273 from New Orleans to Orlando landed into Tampa safely without further incident.
Injuries Reported in Tampa…
It is understood one passenger and one flight attendant was injured during the encounter.
The passenger reported back problems, with the flight attendant suffering a possible elbow and hip fracture.
N567WN remained in Tampa for the rest of the day, before positioning over to St. Louis later in the day.
The aircraft remains in commercial service since the incident, with no damage reported to the plane.
In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had this to say on the matter:
“Southwest Airlines Flight 4273 landed safely at Tampa International Airport around 9 a.m. local time Wednesday, April 3, after the crew reported severe turbulence.”
“The flight departed from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and was headed to Orlando International Airport.”
“The FAA will investigate.”
All eyes will be on the overall investigation.
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