You don’t hear about this everyday: A United Airlines flight taking off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and bound for San Francisco this past Sunday had to turn back suddenly after a row of seats became loose, slid backwards and slammed into a full row of passengers.
Maintenance workers confirmed that there was a loose bolt on three occupied seats in the third row of that flight. At takeoff, the seats simply came undone.
One woman sitting in the fourth row suffered a knee injury and was transported to the hospital after the pilot made an emergency landing.
Maintenance workers fixed the problem (though the flight was delayed more than three hours).
United says it will compensate passengers for that delay.
The injured woman flew to San Francisco this morning on a free first class ticket.