Singapore Airlines Flight Encounters Severe Turbulence: One Passenger Dead, 7 Critically Injured
One person died and 30 were hurt when a Singapore Airlines flight hit rough air on Tuesday. The turbulence caused passengers and crew to be thrown around the cabin, and the plane had to land in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.
The flight was coming from London and headed to Singapore. It suddenly hit turbulence while the crew was serving breakfast. This made the pilots ask for an emergency landing, said Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport general manager Kittipong Kittikachorn.
Pictures inside the plane showed big holes in the ceiling, masks hanging down, and luggage all over. Some passengers hit their heads on the ceiling lights and broke through the panels.
A 73-year-old British man died, probably from a heart attack, Kittikachorn said. Seven people were critically hurt, some with head injuries. He said most people stayed calm as they got off the plane.
Singapore Airlines said 18 people were taken to hospitals and 12 were still there. They sent a team of 50 people to help them, Kittikachorn added.
The airline said sorry for the bad experience and offered condolences to the dead man’s family.
A passenger told Reuters that the plane first went up, then down suddenly. “Everyone without a seatbelt flew into the ceiling,” said Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student.
Kittikachorn said most passengers he talked to had their seatbelts on.
The Boeing 777-300ER plane had 211 passengers and 18 crew when it landed. The airport said the plane asked for an emergency landing at 3:35pm local time and landed at 3:51pm. Unhurt passengers got off, and another plane will take them on.
TURBULENCE:
Turbulence is the most common reason for airline accidents, according to a study by the National Transportation Safety Board. It found that from 2009 to 2018, more than a third of accidents involved turbulence.
Singapore Airlines has not had major problems lately. Its last crash was in 2000 in Taiwan.
Boeing said it would help Singapore Airlines. “We’re sorry for the family’s loss, and we’re thinking of the passengers and crew,” it said.
Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau will send people to Bangkok to check what happened.
