Turbulence on Air Canada flight sends food and drinks flying in the cabin

Turbulence on a recent Air Canada flight was so rough it caused food and drinks to spill all over the airplane cabin aisle and splatter onto ceiling.

Flight AC19 departed from Vancouver on Friday and was on its way to Singapore when the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner suddenly hit “major bumps” and “everything went flying (including a few people!),” according to a Reddit post on the r/aircanada subreddit by user HefetzHashud, who said they were a passenger onboard. The user did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment.

An Air Canada spokesperson confirmed the flight encountered “some turbulence” about three hours into the 16-hour-long journey.

In the comments, the Reddit user said the turbulence lasted for around four to seven minutes and it was “one huge drop in altitude that sent everything flying.”

The user also commented that passengers helped the flight attendants clean up afterwards and those with wet seats were given tablecloths.

Ding! Even if the seatbelt sign is off, you should stay buckled while flying. Here’s why.

The flight landed safely about 26 minutes later than its scheduled arrival time, with no reported injuries, according to the airline.

“The aircraft underwent a full, mandatory inspection and has since returned to service,” the spokesperson said.

This year has seen a string of turbulence-related flight incidents, including a Singapore Airlines flight in May that left 30 people injured. One passenger died, but it’s unconfirmed if it was related to the turbulence or a health issue. Last month, a United Airlines flight from Cancún to Chicago met with severe turbulence that injured one person.

Is turbulence getting worse?

Yes. Climate change has been contributing to turbulence becoming more frequent and severe. Although it’s still extremely rare to encounter the roughest kind of turbulence, it does happen.

Passengers can stay safe by staying buckled in whenever they’re seated, even if the seatbelt sign is off. That’s because so-called clear air turbulence can pop up unexpectedly, and is the most likely to cause injury since people are the least likely to be secured when it does.

Cruising Altitude: Planes are made to handle bad weather, so why is your flight canceled?

“Anytime somebody asks me about turbulence, I say the same thing,” Thomas Guinn, chair of applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, previously told USA TODAY. “If you’re fastened in your seat belt, the odds of getting injured in a turbulence event are low.”

Contributing: Zach Wichter, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Turbulence sent food and drinks flying in the cabin on this flight