Five people aboard an American Airlines flight were hospitalized Sunday after the airline said the aircraft experienced “unexpected turbulence.”

American Airlines Flight 1286 was traveling from Miami to Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina when the plane hit turbulence, an American Airlines spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement.

The plane, an Airbus A321, landed safely at Raleigh-Durham International Airport at around 10:50 p.m. “after the crew reported possible injuries to cabin crew and passengers due to turbulence,” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.

An airport spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that RDU Fire Rescue, along with rescue personnel from Wake and Durham Counties, met the flight when it landed around 11:30 p.m. and rushed five individuals to a nearby hospital.

FLIGHT PASSENGER’S RANT ABOUT AIRLINE STANDBY PRACTICES GOES VIRAL AS RECORD SUMMER TRAVEL GETS UNDERWAY

Three flight attendants and two passengers were taken to the hospital, according to the airline, and later released. No further details about the extent of any injuries were immediately provided. The airline added that the seat belt sign was on when the flight encountered turbulence.

Passengers who said they were aboard the flight described the ordeal to WRAL News.

“It was like being on the top of a roller coaster and going down,” said one passenger, who wanted to remain anonymous. “It sounded like we hit something and then we just dropped in the air.”

Another passenger told the outlet that the sudden shift in altitude sent people, laptops, cell phones and items from the drinks cart “flying in every direction” in the cabin.

An American Airlines spokesperson said the flight hit “unexpected turbulence.” (Kevin Carter/Getty Images, File)

AMERICAN AIRLINES PLANE THAT CAUGHT FIRE HAD ENGINE PARTS INSTALLED INCORRECTLY, NTSB FINDS

A passenger described seeing two flight attendants get injured, including one they said suffered a broken arm and another who was burned from hot water on the drinks cart. The passenger said a man was also knocked unconscious.

Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) welcome signage in Morrisville, North Carolina, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I would say it was absolutely horrific,” one passenger told the outlet. “People thought that they were going to lose their lives.”

The FAA said it will investigate the incident.

The Trump administration on Tuesday afternoon announced that it approved construction of an off-the-grid facility to house ICE detainees in the heart of Florida’s “alligator alley.” 

Florida state officials began building the site on Monday, which will be completed in less than two months. 

A 30-square-mile property in the Everglades called the Miami-Dade/Collier Training Facility, home to a “virtually abandoned airport,” will soon be the site of a 5,000-bed facility to hold criminal illegal immigrants, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. 

“The governor tasked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one: as I call it, ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’” Uthmeier said in a promotional video on X.

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Uthmeier’s office said the goal is to have the facility operational the first week of July. The Florida National Guard will play a key role at the site, which is a temporary repurposing of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport which is land owned by Miami-Dade County.

Uthmeier said the location presents “an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility” because it does not require heavy investment in perimeter confinement measures. 

“[If] people get out, there’s not that much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons,” he said. “Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.” 

Uthmeier said the project can be rapidly completed in just 30 to 60 days of beginning construction, which was slated to begin Monday, according to the New York Times.

That report says the facility will cost the state about $450 million per year to operate, but that it can be reimbursed at least in part by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced during a press conference that his office is offering to send a team of additional prosecutors to the Ninth Circuit to assist Orange/Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell with a backlog of cases, Monday, Apr. 14, 2025. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

DOZENS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED AT FLORIDA CONSTRUCTION SITES

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens. We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. 

The move was announced as the Trump administration continues to ramp up deportations, and looks for places for detainees to stay during that process. 

One option is the notorious Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba, where the administration seeks to fill 30,000 beds with illegal immigrants. 

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller confirmed last month that the Trump administration’s goal is to arrest 3,000 illegal immigrants daily, a statement which was reaffirmed by border czar Tom Homan. 

“We’ve gotta increase these arrests and removals,” Homan said on “America’s Newsroom.” “The numbers are good, but I’m not satisfied. I haven’t been satisfied all year long.”

Border czar Tom Homan said arrests of illegal immigrants need to increase. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Uthmeier’s office. 

Fox News’ Danamarie McNicholl and Cam Arcand contributed to this report. 

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, an adopted son of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., has announced a Palmetto State gubernatorial bid.

“As your governor, we’ll deliver meaningful relief to hard-working people. We’re going to finally eliminate the state income tax,” Wilson, who has served as the state’s attorney general since 2011, said during a speech on Monday.

“We’re going to DOGE South Carolina government from top to bottom,” he declared. “We will root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and we will expose it.”

SOUTH CAROLINA AG TAKES ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HIT-AND-RUN, PROMISES CRIMINALS ‘WE’RE COMING FOR YOU’

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who has said that she is considering running for governor, has previously accused Wilson of protecting pedophiles.

“How does Alan Wilson explain his record of protecting kids vs. protecting p*dos? You either protect kids or you protect p*dos. You can’t do both. Alan Wilson chose p*dophiles. Hold the line,” Mace wrote in an April post on X.

Robert Kittle, spokesperson for the state attorney general’s office, called Mace’s accusations “ridiculous,” telling Fox News Digital in an email on Tuesday that as an assistant attorney general, Wilson previously “prosecuted, and put behind bars, people who sexually abused children.”

EXCLUSIVE: NANCY MACE DISMISSES ‘BURNER’ ACCOUNT ALLEGATIONS AS ‘BITTER EXES’ TALE

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. (U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.)

Wilson appeared to push back against Mace’s attacks in a lengthy post on X in May.

“I will not stand by and allow someone to lie about, not only me, but the dedicated men and women in my office who’ve been in the trenches protecting kids for years. A would-be candidate for Governor is attacking me, prosecutors, and our law enforcement partners who put their life on the line to protect children and catch predators. Enough is enough. Over the course of the last several weeks, this would-be candidate has peddled lies and mistruths for her own political ambitions and clicks on social media,” he asserted. 

“Specifically, she has brought up a handful of cases from the last decade related to offenders that obtained illegal images of children. Let me be clear, our ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) division has worked to get these criminals before a judge and hold them accountable. Our objective is to indict, prosecute, and get them added to the Sex Offender Registry,” he noted in part of the long post. 

“When the would-be candidate for Governor criticizes the Attorney General’s Office, she’s purposefully omitting the fact that judges give sentences, not prosecutors. When she criticizes the prosecutors, she’s ignorant to the fact that often, our office is working in sync with a federal agencies that can get more time,” Wilson declared.

Mace fired back at the time, describing the post as “a very long-winded deflection full of excuses, half-truths and lies, as to why you can’t seem to do your job effectively as South Carolina Attorney General.” 

NANCY MACE BLASTS TIM WALZ AFTER HE FAILS TO DEFINE WHAT A WOMAN IS

Rep. Nancy Mace is considering a run for governor of South Carolina. (GOP Oversight YouTube channel)

Current Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, is not eligible to seek another term in 2026 because the state constitution stipulates, “No person shall be elected Governor for more than two successive terms.”

McMaster, who became governor in 2017 after Gov. Nikki Haley, also a Republican, stepped down to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, won the state’s 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial elections.