UNITED JET'S PLUNGE KILLS 1; 102 INJURED BY TURBULENCE.

Byline: Kozo Mizoguchi Associated Press

A United Airlines jumbo jet carrying 393 people hit heavy turbulence over the Pacific Ocean late Sunday, killing one woman and injuring at least 102 people, some of them seriously.

United Flight 826, en route to Honolulu from Narita, Japan, turned back after encountering the turbulence and landed again in Narita early today, a spokesman said from United's Chicago headquarters. Narita is 40 miles northeast of Tokyo.

Of the 102 people treated for injuries, 11 passengers and one crew member remained hospitalized early today, said Toru Kawai, an airport police spokesman. He said their conditions were not life-threatening.

Japanese news reports said the turbulence was so violent that the plane suddenly dropped, sending passengers and flight attendants into overhead luggage compartments and the ceiling.

A United spokeswoman said the Boeing 747 encountered ``severe clear-air turbulence,'' unanticipated rockiness that develops when there are no storms visible.

``The plane suddenly descended while an attendant was delivering meals, and oxygen masks dropped and food scattered everywhere,'' Kyodo news quoted Joji Hara, a 50-year-old passenger from Tokyo, as saying.

Hara said there were several dents in the ceiling panel caused by people being thrown against the roof, according to Kyodo.

A videotape taken by a passenger and shown on the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) showed oxygen masks swaying from the ceiling and people lying in the central passageway of the plane. Screams also could be heard.

The incident lasted several minutes. Afterward there was an announcement that the plane had dropped about 990 feet but that there was no fear of a crash.

Most of those hurt suffered head or neck injuries, Kawai said.

He said 36 people, including one woman who later died there, were treated at the Narita Red Cross Hospital. Two remained hospitalized, but others were released, Kawai said. Hospital officials declined to comment.

Konomi Kataura, 32, of Tokyo, died from a severe head injury, according to Kyodo news. United officials did not immediately identify the woman.

``Our hearts go out to everyone who was on the flight and to their family, to their friends and loved ones,'' United Chairman and CEO Gerald Greenwald said.

United has assigned representatives to each of the hospitals to assist passengers, said Joe Hopkins, a United spokesman in Chicago. Those who were not injured were taken to hotels, he said.

Hiroyuki Tsuchiya, a passenger from Tokyo traveling with his wife, told Kyodo that both of them ``floated about one meter (3.3 feet) like we were in an elevator falling down.'' Tsuchiya and his wife were wearing seat belts, he said.

The plane departed Narita at 9:05 p.m., airport police said. United said the plane turned around about two hours into the flight and landed back in Narita at 2:20 a.m. today.

The turbulence occurred at a point 1,116 miles east of Narita, while the plane was at cruising altitude, Japanese news reports said. It normally takes six hours and 30 minutes from Narita to Honolulu.

The plane was flying near, but outside of, an area that a local observatory warned might contain turbulent air, Japanese news reports said.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the accident, Hopkins said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Ambulances and paramedics rush to United Flight 826, which returned early today to the New Tokyo International Airport in Narita after hitting heavy turbulence and falling 990 feet on a Honolulu-bound flight. One woman died of a head injury and 102 people were hurt.

(2) A man injured during the fall of a jetliner in turbulence over the Pacific speaks to a woman in an ambulance on the way to a hospital early today.

Associated Press