Disturbance on the flight from Cuba. Many injured people were taken to hospital.

A problem on the Neos flight, coming from Havana, put on alert the emergency system in Malpensa.

The alarm was given today 19^th November, a little after midday; the emergency request was due to some injured people on a flight coming from Cuba.

According to the first pieces of information, it was apparently caused by a disturbance (an air pocket) that occurred during the cruise, some passengers were tossed around the cabin.

The alarm for the presence on board of some injured people was directly given by the control tower in Malpensa, which set off, at 12.39, the standard emergency procedure for this kind of air accidents. The fire brigade was not mobilised, whereas the emergency services, included two medical cars, which arrived on the scene, were about twenty; according to the board crew, there were 19 persons in need of treatment, and one of them probably needed to be hospitalised.

According to the official report of the Emergenza Urgenza Agency in the Lombardy Regional Council, 35 persons were examined at the landing. At 14.15, two persons, who were unable to walk, were taken to the Terminal 1 by stretchers, whereas other 25 passengers, whose condition was not very critical, arrived at the air terminal by bus. The AREU’s final note concludes, “At 15.08, there were 35 injured people, four of them were discharged and went back home by their own means, two of them were taken to the hospital in Saronno, one of them was taken to the hospital in Varese and another one of them was taken to the hospital in Castellanza.” In the afternoon, six other persons arrived to the hospital in Gallarate; it was found that five of them were suffering from multiple traumas, whereas a woman was kept under observation because of a concussion.

In the late afternoon, AREU brought the situation up to date, by specifying that 66 passengers were examined; “12 of them were in an average critical condition and 43 of them were not in a very critical condition, they were all kept under observation by the emergency services. Even the hospital facilities in Saronno, Varese, Castellanza, Gallarate, Cuggiono, Busto Arsizio, Legnano, Magenta and Somma Lombardo were involved.”