( CNN ) -- People were `` thrown to the roof as if they were dolls '' and some feared for their lives when a Continental Airlines flight ran into turbulence , shaken passengers said . Oxygen masks hang from a damaged part of the plane Monday , in a photo by passenger Camila Machado . The turbulence struck without warning several hours into Monday 's Continental Flight 128 from Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , to Houston , Texas . The pilot diverted the Boeing 767-200 to Miami , Florida , to get treatment for the injured . Continental said seven passengers were transported to hospitals , and about 28 other passengers were treated at the scene . Lt. Elkin Sierra of the Miami-Dade Fire Department said 26 passengers were injured , including four seriously . `` The airplane came down very sharply , and all of us bumped our heads against the ceiling -- twice , '' Brazilian passenger Celi Dfaria told CNN affiliate WSVN-TV at Miami-Dade International Airport . `` It dropped so hard that everything in the seat-back pockets just flew up in the air . I caught my phone in my lap , '' passenger Richard Sharp told the Houston Chronicle . Watch what happens when a plane drops » . `` The second one was the devastating one . That 's when the plane really fell , '' Fabio Ottolini of Houston , who with his wife and daughter was returning from a visit with family in Brazil , told affiliate KTRK-TV in Houston . `` While it was doing that , I saw people being thrown to the roof as if they were dolls . '' Aloiso Dias thought the plane dropped more than twice . `` I felt like I was on a roller coaster , '' he told WSVN-TV . `` I could n't even see what happened with my wife . I was just holding onto the front of the seat and going with the flow . '' He could n't see because the cabin lights had gone out and `` it was pitch black outside , '' Frederick Bright told the Houston Chronicle . `` I went up , and it was like I was in the air for a minute . Then I came down and I hit my back on the armrest , then I fell into the chair , '' he said . `` I thought I was going to die because the lights went off completely , and all I could see was the red lights '' on the wings . Most of those who were injured had not been wearing seat belts , passengers said . `` It was like in the movies -- anybody who did n't have a seat belt on came right out of their chairs , '' Manuel Alfaro of Houston told the Chronicle . `` It smacked everyone around . '' Several people hit the ceiling hard , witnesses said . `` People that were n't seatbelted in flew up and hit the ceiling , so their heads and their faces hit the plastics all up at the top , '' John Norwood of Houston told WSVN-TV . `` A couple of people were badly hurt from the plastic breaking on their faces from the lights . There were people cut , bleeding . There were a few people unconscious . '' Watch passengers describe the terror » . Deanna Buckley of Houston hit the ceiling but was n't hurt . `` I hit my head on the light above and it broke the light out and I was showered in glass , '' she told WSVN-TV . `` I was lucky , though . There were people on there whose faces were cut up . It was terrible . '' The turbulence came suddenly , catching many passengers asleep . `` It seemed like the back of the plane got it the worst , though , probably because there 's more people in the back and a lot of people did n't have their seat belts on , '' Sharp told the Chronicle . `` You had a lot of people sleeping across the empty rows , so those people were bouncing around on the armrests . They really took the brunt of the beating in the back . '' Learn more about turbulence and what causes it » . One of those was 13-year-old Thiago Candido , who was traveling unaccompanied . `` Oh , I was scared man , '' Candido told KTRK-TV . `` I was sleeping and I woke up with my head in the ceiling . I did n't know what was going on . `` I thought the plane was falling , just like a big earthquake , but in the air , '' he said . The flight carried 168 passengers and 11 crew members . Continental flew remaining passengers to Houston later Monday . `` I think the most important thing about this whole episode is seat belts , all the time , '' Ottolini told KTRK-TV . `` Because we have no way to predict what happened . It just happened . ''
Airliner dropped sharply at least twice , sending people and objects flying . Several people 's heads hit walls , breaking plaster and glass . ` ` I thought I was going to die , '' Houston man told TV news .