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Flight from Madrid to Montevideo had to land in Brazil

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Some 30 passengers hurt, seven more seriously injured

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Replacement Air Europa flight takes off for Uruguay

By Alexandre Lago

NATAL, Brazil, July 2 (Reuters) - A passenger from an

Air Europa flight diverted to northeastern Brazil on Monday due

to severe turbulence said passengers had feared for their lives

during the incident in which about 30 people were injured.

"There are passengers with fractures and injuries to

their arms, faces, and legs," Stevan told Reuters TV in the

Brazilian city of Natal, where flight UX045 from Madrid to the

Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, made an unscheduled landing just

after 2.30 a.m. local time.

"It was a pretty horrible feeling. We thought we were going

to die there," he said, without giving his full name.

Another passenger, Maximiliano, said the plane - a Boeing

787-9 Dreamliner with 325 passengers on board - had suddenly

started to plunge.

"From one moment to the next, the plane destabilized and

went into a dive," he said. "The people who didn't have seat

belts went up in the air and hit the ceiling, and they got hurt

- those who had seat belts on, not so much."

Air Europa said in a statement on Monday that seven people

had suffered varying degrees of injury and that an undetermined

number of passengers had minor contusions.

The health secretariat from the government of Rio Grande do

Norte state, where Natal is located, said 30 passengers had been

taken to hospitals in Natal with minor abrasions or orthopedic

traumas.

The carrier added that the aircraft was being reviewed to

establish the extent of the damage, and said in a social media

post on Tuesday that a replacement flight to take the passengers

on to Montevideo had left Natal early in the day.

The airline did not immediately respond to a request for

further comment about the incident, which took place less than

two months since one passenger died and dozens were hurt when

turbulence hit a Singapore Airlines flight from London to

Singapore.

Some scientists have warned of worsening turbulence tied to

climate change.

The most common cause of turbulence is the unstable

weather patterns that trigger storms, which can be detected by

weather radar, allowing pilots to fly around potential patches.

Recent incidents have increased concern in the air travel

industry about seat belt and safety practices.

An international agreement, the Montreal Convention, makes

airlines liable for physical injuries from accidents on

international flights, which can include turbulence, regardless

of whether they were negligent.

(Additional reporting by Joanna Plucinska in London, Emma

Pinedo Gonzalez in Madrid and Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo

Editing by Helen Popper)