File: A ground operations employee prepares a Southwest Airlines Co. Boeing Co. 737 aircraft for departure on the tarmac at John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Santa Ana, California, U.S., on Thursday, April 14, 2016. (Patrick T.
Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty I DALLAS - A Southwest Airlines flight attendant suffered a compression fracture to a vertebra in her upper back during a hard landing last month in California, according to federal safety investigators.The National Transportation Safety Board said the impact of landing was so hard that the flight attendant thought the plane had crashed.
She felt pain in her back and neck and could not move, and was taken to a hospital where she was diagnosed with the fracture.The safety board completed its investigation without saying what caused the hard larding.The NTSB said none of the other 141 people on board the plane were injured in the incident at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California.The pilots told investigators that they were aiming for the normal touchdown zone on the relatively short runway."However, it ended up being a firm landing," the NTSB said in its final report, dated Friday.RELATED: Southwest Airlines drops expiration dates on flight creditsDallas-based Southwest said in a statement Monday, "We reported the matter to the NTSB in accordance with regulatory requirements and conducted an internal review of the event."A spokeswoman for the airline declined to provide further information when asked about the result of the internal investigation and whether the plane was inspected for evidence of damage that could occur during a hard landing.