A Qatar Airways flight that departed Dulles International Airport on Sunday made an emergency landing on an island off the Portuguese mainland today, according to passengers and a flight-tracking website.
The flight, which was headed for Doha, landed at Lajes Air Base in Azores, Portugal, four hours and 58 minutes after takeoff, according to Flight Aware. Passengers said the landing was prompted by severe turbulence over the Atlantic.
"It was like the (Drop Tower) ride at Kings Dominion," said Raseel Mohamed, 39, of Herndon, Virginia, who was aboard the plane. "The bottom fell out."
Qatar Airways could not immediately be reached for comment, but the airline said in tweets it had dispatched another airplane to the island. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said the agency would not be informed about any issues that occurred on board the plane following departure.
Mohamed, who was sitting in an aisle seat next to his wife and 6-year-old son, said the severe turbulence lasted about three minutes, tossing passengers around the cabin and wounding several. He said they had just buckled their seatbelts when they felt a severe jolt.