- “I saw people… going completely horizontal,” the passenger says.
- One dead and dozens injured on a Singapore Airlines flight.
- More than 140 passengers return to Singapore after deadly flight.
SINGAPORE: More than 140 passengers and crew of a Singapore Airlines flight hit by severe turbulence that left dozens injured and one dead finally arrived in Singapore on a relief flight on Wednesday morning after an emergency landing in Bangkok.
The scheduled London-Singapore flight on a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft was diverted to Bangkok after the plane was hit by turbulence that threw passengers and crew around the cabin, knocking some against the roof.
A 73-year-old British passenger died of a suspected heart attack and at least 30 people were injured.
“I saw people on the other side of the hallway going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and landing again in really uncomfortable positions. People were suffering massive cuts to their heads, concussions,” said Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board. the flight, he told Reuters after arriving in Singapore.
Photos from inside the plane showed cuts in the cabin's overhead panels, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling and luggage strewn everywhere. One passenger said some people's heads smashed into the lights above the seats, breaking the panels.
Singapore Airlines carried 131 passengers and 12 crew on the relief flight from Bangkok, which arrived in Singapore shortly before 5 am (2100 GMT). There were 211 passengers, including many Australians, British and Singaporeans, and 18 crew on board the original flight; The wounded airmen and their families remained in Bangkok.
“On behalf of Singapore Airlines, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased,” Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong said in a video message.
Officers from Singapore's Transport Security Investigation Bureau arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday evening, Singapore Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said in a statement on Facebook.
As the incident involves a US company, Boeing, which manufactures the 777-300ER aircraft, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent an accredited representative and four technical advisers to support the investigation, it said.
The plane encountered sudden extreme turbulence, Goh said, and the pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted to Bangkok.
Aircraft tracking provider FlightRadar 24 said at 0749 GMT that the flight encountered “a rapid change in vertical speed, consistent with a sudden turbulence event,” according to flight tracking data.
“At the time there were thunderstorms, some severe, in the area,” he said.
Weather forecasting service AccuWeather said Tuesday that explosive storms developing rapidly near the path of Flight 321 likely contributed to the violent turbulence.
“Developing storms often have strong updrafts, a zone of upward-moving air, that rises very quickly, sometimes at more than 100 mph, and can leave pilots with little time to react if it strikes directly. in front of the plane,” Dan DePodwin said. , Senior Director of Forecast Operations at AccuWeather.
The sudden turbulence occurred over Myanmar's Irrawaddy Basin about 10 hours into the flight, Singapore Airlines said.
“It's not uncommon for big storms to occur in the Bay of Bengal. There's always a chance of potholes,” says a pilot for an airline that flies regularly to Singapore and Southeast Asia. The pilot asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
“Two days ago we were about 30 miles from the runway as we flew around storms on the way to Singapore,” the pilot added.
Turbulence has many causes, the most obvious being unstable weather patterns that trigger storms, but this flight could have been affected by clear air turbulence, which is difficult to detect.
Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants (CWA), which represents more than 50,000 workers at 20 airlines, said it is important for passengers to wear seat belts when seated.
“It's a matter of life and death,” Nelson said.
Turbulence-related airline accidents are the most common type of accident, according to a 2021 NTSB study.
Although the airline said 30 people were injured, Samitivej Hospital in Thailand said it was treating 71 passengers.
From 2009 to 2018, the US agency found that turbulence accounted for more than a third of reported airline accidents and most resulted in one or more serious injuries but no damage to the aircraft.
Singapore Airlines, widely recognized as one of the world's leading airlines and considered a benchmark for much of the industry, has had no major incidents in recent years.
Its last accident causing casualties was a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei, where it crashed on October 31, 2000 at Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport, killing 83 of the 179 people on board.
Singapore Airlines shares did not trade on Wednesday due to a public holiday in Singapore.
