Five injured as United Airlines Boeing 787 hits turbulence over the Philippines

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a preliminary report into an incident involving a United Airlines Boeing 787 which encountered turbulence as it flew over the Philippines on March 27, 2025. The report, published by the FAA on April 22, 2025, states that five passengers and crewmembers were injured due to the encounter.

According to the FAA report and Aviation Herald, the event unfolded as United Airlines flight UA1 flew from San Francisco to Singapore with 174 passengers and 14 crew onboard. The flight was being operated by one of the carrier’s 43-strong fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners with registration N27958. The flight departed from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at 00:39 on March 27, 2025, bound for Singapore-Changi Airport (SIN).    

As the flight cruised at 40,000ft (12,000m) and passed over Butuan City on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, the aircraft encountered a brief period of severe turbulence. As a result of the incident, one flight attendant suffered serious injuries while another four suffered minor injuries, including one crew member and three passengers.

According to eyewitness reports from passengers onboard UA1, the aircraft shook violently for around 20 seconds, with some items being ejected from overhead bins as a result. One flight attendant who was standing during beverage service was thrown against the ceiling, resulting in a broken arm and a concussion. The three other injured crew and one passenger experienced minor bruises and trauma but did not require hospitalization upon landing.

Flightradar24Following the incident, the flight crew elected to continue to the flight’s intended destination of Singapore, where medical assistance was waiting for its arrival. The flight eventually landed at Changi Airport at 07:40 on March 27, 2025, around three hours after the turbulence struck the aircraft. The injured crew member was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.

United Airlines released a statement expressing regret for the incident and confirmed that the crew followed standard operating procedures during the turbulence.

The NTSB reported it joined the investigation into the incident, which was led by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) as an accredited representative, classing the occurrence as an accident given the nature of the injuries sustained. The incident was reported on April 22, 2025, as part of the FAA’s Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) system. The event itself has prompted calls for renewed scrutiny over airline safety on long-haul flights across turbulence-prone regions.

Robin Guess / ShutterstockThe FAA has said that it will continue to investigate the incident in coordination with CAAP. This will involve analysis of flight data recorders, weather patterns, and crew response protocols to determine the exact cause and assess whether preventive measures could have mitigated the injuries sustained by those onboard.

A region known for turbulence

The route taken by the affected flight highlights an increasing number of in-flight events involving severe turbulence in Southeast Asian air corridors. The region is known in particular for aggressive thunderstorms and rapidly changing wind conditions, particularly at higher altitudes where commercial aircraft fly (known as Intertropical Convergence Zones (ITCZ).

As aircraft pass through such zones, there is a higher chance of encountering clear-air turbulence (CAT) or sudden downdrafts due to climatic activity, much of which is invisible to radar and unpredictable. Air crews generally rely on reports from other aircraft about flight conditions before making a judgment call as to whether to divert around such areas.

Eric Salard / Creative CommonsExperts have suggested that better use of predictive weather technology and data-sharing between the aviation authorities of affected nations and the rest of the industry could help improve turbulence forecasting in the future.

In May 2024, one passenger died and more than 30 others were injured after a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER hit severe turbulence on a flight between London and Singapore. The flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) as a result of the incident.

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