People who were aboard a
shaky flight out of Narita
land in Honolulu

By Star-Bulletin Staff and wire

Reiko Mori, wearing a white neck brace this morning at Honolulu International Airport, kept her seat belt buckled all the way on her flight from Japan.

She was on board United Flight 826 yesterday when it plunged a thousand feet amid passengers' screams, tossing a flight attendant against her as she finished her meal.

"I was a little scared, I only slept a little," the 26-year-old Tokyo tourist said. "I thought we were going to crash."

Turbulence sent the United Airlines jumbo jet plunging toward the sea, tossing passengers and crew headfirst into the ceiling. One woman was killed and 102 other passengers were injured.

After the severe jolting, Flight 826 turned back and landed at Narita, 40 miles northeast of Tokyo.

United spokesman Joe Hopkins would not release information on whether any passengers were from Hawaii or whether the flight crew was based here.

But the United flight crew arriving today said colleagues on Sunday's flight had returned to Hawaii on an early morning flight today.

Ten passengers and one flight attendant remained hospitalized in Japan today, Hopkins said. The most severe injuries involved the back, neck and ribs.

United flight attendant Gary Kanehiro, based in Hawaii, said passengers today had appeared calm.

Mori said she had just finished eating and the flight attendant was cleaning up yesterday when the plane plunged, throwing the attendant against her. Mori said her seat belt was fastened at the time.

She said she was satisfied with the way United had taken care of her and other passengers.

Passengers this morning who were not on the Sunday flight were also nervous. Camila Jensen, a Hawaii Pacific University student, said her parents called her in Tokyo before she took off to tell her about the accident.

"I didn't think it would happen again but it was kind of bumpy," said Jensen, who kept her seat belt buckled the entire flight. "I was scared."

United spokeswoman Kristina Price said the fasten seatbelt light was turned on when the plane began experiencing slight turbulence. Announcements were also made in English and Japanese alerting passengers to buckle up, she said.

The National Transportation Safety Board, however, could not be sure whether the sign was on until investigators talked with the crew, said NTSB spokesman Matthew Furman.

In Narita yesterday, passengers said the turbulence was so violent that those standing in the aisles were thrown several feet into the air, while some who were seated bumped their heads on the overhead luggage compartments.

"I thought I was dying," said Kiyotaka Eto, a 16-year-old high school student from Osaka who had been headed for a surfing vacation in Hawaii.

He said his seat belt saved him from injury.

A traveling companion, Yuji Takahashi, 17, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, hit his head on the ceiling. "It was like something straight out of the movies," he said.

The plane left Narita about 9 p.m. last night with 374 passengers and 19 crew aboard for what is normally a 6-1/2-hour flight.

It hit the rough air just as meals were being served about two hours later.

A United spokeswoman said the Boeing 747 encountered "severe clear-air turbulence" -- unanticipated rockiness that develops when there are no storms visible.

The turbulence rocked the plane when it was 1,100 miles east of Narita, flying at cruising altitude, and lasted several minutes.

The plane was flying near an area that a local observatory warned might contain turbulent air, Japanese news reports said.

Konomi Kataura, 32, of Tokyo died of internal cerebral bleeding, he said.

In a videotape taken by a passenger aboard and shown on Japan's NHK television, oxygen masks swayed from the ceiling and people lay in an aisle. Screams could be heard.

"Suddenly the plane dropped and people were jumping and falling, and things came flying at me -- like juice cans, food," said Chieko Ejiri, 28, who was on her way to a vacation with her boyfriend.

Many people were dozing when the plane lurched, rattled for a few minutes, then went into a sudden free fall.

Hopkins said the seat belt sign was on, but passengers said it was off.

When the plane finally settled down, the ceiling was sprayed with red wine, and broken plates filled the aisle, passengers said.

"The plane suddenly descended while an attendant was delivering meals, and oxygen masks dropped and food scattered everywhere," Kyodo News quoted Joji Hara, a 50-year-old passenger from Tokyo, as saying.