B767-300 and 300 ER
Flight Attendant Current
Other / Unknown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General Physical Injury / Incapacitation
Weather; Human Factors
I was assigned position 6. During last service (snack) before landing around by row 32; the plane started to shake. I was at front end of liquor cart. The turbulence started to get worse and I told passengers I would not be serving hot beverages. As it escalated we decided to go take our seats. Another Flight Attendant was doing snacks and came to assist me with finishing beverages but we were unable to continue so we took the cart back to the galley. While attempting to get to the back; the plane started to shake violently tossing us around. I got to the last row between the lavatories and the cart was rocking side to side throwing the bin that was on top on the floor. The coffee pots shattered and water and juice exploded on the floor. I was trapped in between bathrooms because there was nowhere for me to go. A Flight Attendant was sitting in the middle jumpseat in the back because her 2L jumpseat had the snack cart in front of it and another cart had fallen in the middle of the galley. I found myself with nowhere to put the liquor cart since there are absolutely no tie downs in this airplane. The cart was falling on top of me as I was attempting to get to my seat and I was afraid of being crushed. I hit myself several times trying to hold on and find a place for the cart so it would not fall on top of us. I finally put the cart next to the one that was on the floor and had one foot up trying to hold it as it looked like it was about to topple over. Coffee was splashing from the top coffee makers burning me in the process. In all my years of flying I've never seen such a mess. I have never felt that unsafe since these carts fall over all the time and there are no tie downs anywhere to secure them. We had no prior notice of this turbulence and I'm not sure what communication happened between the cockpit and the Purser since she's the one that got on the PA and urged us to sit down. I'm not sure if this is a common occurrence or if this was isolated but this severe turbulence merited notice. I have bruises everywhere and banged myself trying to sit down. I was trapped and I had no other resources. Please tell me how I should proceed should this happen again. What do we do with these unstable carts and where are we to protect ourselves?
B767-300 Flight Attendant describes an unanticipated encounter with turbulence and difficulties securing the cart and finding a jumpseat.