By Editor,Eliot Force

Copyright dailymail

New details have emerged about the brutal injuries sustained by 18 passengers during ‘severe turbulence’ on a Delta Airlines flight from Utah.

Delta flight 56 was on its way from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam when it experienced extreme turbulence that launched passengers up towards the ceiling and back to the floor, the Associated Press reported.

Passengers experienced up to 1.75 Gs of force, a gravitational pull 75 percent stronger than their body weight, according to a Sept. 9 report from the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB.

‘That’s like a muscle man grabbing you by the shoulders and with all of his strength trying to pull you up,’ aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti told the AP.

‘If you’re standing and you experience those types of forces, you’re going to be thrown upward into the ceiling and then back down again onto the floor with a lot of force.’

After determining that people had been injured, the flight crew diverted to Minneapolis St Paul International airport.

Of the 246 passengers on board, 24 were assessed for injuries and 18 were sent to the hospital. Further information about their condition is unavailable.

Out of the 10 cabin crew, two sustained serious injuries, five had minor injuries, and three were uninjured. None of the three flight crew members were injured.

The plane received minor damage to its interior components, the report also noted.

Before taking off, the crew for flight 56, ‘had discussed the conditions along the route, noting that they could expect some weather during the climb, and that turbulence was predicted,’ according to the NTSB report.

The departure was relatively calm until the plane reached the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, where it experienced some turbulence. Soon enough, the ride smoothed out and the cabin crew were able to begin service. Around this time the pilot turned off the seatbelt sign.

As the Airbus A330-941 continued its ascent, its pilots noticed weather buildup and requested a safe deviation route from air traffic control, which suggested a left turn.

After completing the turn, the plane was moving too fast and experienced an updraft which disengaged the autopilot at an altitude of around 37,000 feet.

The plane then rapidly descended, kicking off two and a half minutes of severe turbulence as the aircraft pitched up and down, repeating the cycle three times as the first officer flying the plane attempted to stabilize it and re-engage the autopilot.

Leann Clement-Nash, a passenger on the flight told ABC news: ‘If you didn’t have your seat belt on, everyone that didn’t, they hit the ceiling, and then they fell to the ground.

‘And the carts also hit the ceiling and fell to the ground and people were injured. It happened several times, so it was really scary.’

William Webster, another passenger on the flight, told CNN: ‘I felt the centrifugal force. I was off my seat for like 30 seconds with the turbulence.’

‘I watched a wine cart just get thrown into the air.’

Guzzeti, the aviation safety consultant, told the AP that the two and a half minutes of turbulence would have ‘felt like an eternity’ for those on board.

He also said the NTSB will investigate whether the pilots did enough to avoid the storm and whether it was a good judgement to turn off the seatbelt sign.

Delta said it was ‘cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board on an investigation’ in a news release after the incident.

The airline also said: ‘Safety is our No. 1 value at Delta, and our Delta Care Team is working directly with customers to support their immediate needs.’

Air travel remains statistically safe, but this incident comes after a series of fatal airline accidents this year.

Four hundred and sixty airflight fatalities occurred in just the first six months of the year, which is almost two times the average of 248 deaths in a full year.