Two passengers were hospitalised after a SkyWest flight plummeted 4,000 feet in less than a minute.
The aircraft, which was travelling from Aspen, Colorado to Houston, Texas, was forced to make an emergency landing after at least one passenger was thrown against the ceiling.
The violent turbulence occurred around 90 minutes into SkyWest Flight 5971's journey on Thursday due to bad weather near Fort Worth in Texas.
The 39 passengers on board were left screaming after the plane dropped from a cruising altitude of 39,000 feet to 34,650 feet in seconds.
Violent turbulence occurred around 90 minutes into SkyWest Flight 5971's journey
|WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Air traffic control audio captured on Thursday evening by LiveATC.net heard a pilot say: "We're going to need a stretcher, and there is bleeding as well."
The aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Austin, approximately 165 miles away from its original destination.
Images of the plane after the turbulence show personal belongings tossed down the aisles, and oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.
One passenger described how a grown man was thrown around like "a rag doll", telling ABC: "Someone in front of me hit the ceiling several times."
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The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
|GETTY
They continued: "I looked down and there was a cellphone in my lap that wasn't mine. I guess it flew up and landed in my lap."
A spokesman for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport told CNN how two passengers were hospitalised for non-life-threatening injuries "out of an abundance of caution".
They added that emergency responders evaluated all 39 passengers for injuries when the plane landed, alongside four crew members.
A SkyWest spokesman told CNN: "Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of all onboard and we are working with our partner United to assist customers."
Turbulence is caused by disturbances in the atmosphere which alter the way the air moves around the outside of a plane.
According to date from the US National Transportation Safety Board, the phenomenon caused more than 200 serious injuries between 2009 and 2024.
Although fatalities are rare, they are not unheard of.
Last year, a man died after "extreme turbulence" on a Singapore Airlines flight from London Heathrow - which plunged 7,000ft in just six minutes en route to the southeast Asian state.