Fourteen people were injured on a Korean Air flight to Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar after encountering turbulence so strong that the aircraft shook and meals flew around, Korea JoongAng Daily has reported.

The plane, carrying 281 passengers on flight KE197, was hit by acute turbulence that violently shook the aircraft up and down for around 15 seconds approximately one hour after it departed Korea’s Incheon Airport and as it flew in proximity to China's Tianjin Airport at an altitude of 34,100 feet, Korean Air was cited as saying. There were no serious injuries, but 10 passengers and four flight attendants reported back and neck pain, it added.

The incident will heighten concerns that in-flight turbulence is becoming increasingly frequent due to weather distortions caused by climate change. Clear air turbulence, a type of turbulence that is hard to detect before it strikes, increased by 55% from 1979 to 2020, according to a study released last year by the UK’s University of Reading. In May, a British man died on board a Singapore Airlines flight hit by severe turbulence as it flew from London to Singapore.

A passenger who posted on X after the Korean Air episode described the experience, saying: “The turbulence started around the time people were finished eating. The airplane sharply plunged so people were screaming and the meals were all knocked over, it was chaotic.

"People who weren't wearing seat belts shot up into the air," the Korean daily quoted travel blogger Kim Hae-in as writing on her blog, adding: “One passenger bounced really high, hit their head on the ceiling and dropped into the aisle.”