The passenger who died onboard a Singapore Airlines jet travelling from the UK today was a 73-year-old British man, Thai officials have confirmed, Daily Mail reports.
According to the report by Daily Mail, after around 11 hours of flying time from take off in London, the aircraft hit an air pocket and sharply dropped 6,000 feet in five minutes, unleashing mayhem in the cabin and forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
Terrified passengers have described how they had little warning to put their seatbelts on before the aircraft suddenly dropped, with one passenger saying people were ‘launched into the ceiling’ as the plane fell through the sky.
Of the plane’s 211 passengers and 18 crew, one person was left dead and 23 were injured. Of those, officials said seven suffered critical head injuries.
Suvarnabhumi airport general manager Kittipong Kittikachorn told a press conference that the deceased was a 73-year-old British man who was travelling with his wife. He likely suffered a heart attack, the official said.
The man’s name was not immediately released. Kittikachorn added that the pensioner’s wife is also in hospital, but that her condition was unknown.
Singapore Airlines jet Passengers have described how the plane dropped in mid-air as it encountered extreme turbulence near Myanmar airspace.
‘Suddenly the aircraft starts tilting up and there was shaking so I started bracing for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop so everyone seated and not wearing seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling,’ Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board the flight told Reuters.
‘Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it, they hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it,’ he said.
Ceiling fittings had been ripped apart and the pipework was exposed. Machinery was hanging from the galley where trolleys are stored.
One air stewardess was seen with red marks over her face. Her male colleague could be seen in a chair nearby, looking shocked and dishevelled.
Another passenger described how in the aftermath, other flyers had to administer medical assistance to those who were injured.
The Boeing 777 plane operated by Singapore Airlines left the UK’s Heathrow airport on Monday evening at 22.17pm local time with 211 passengers and 18 crew on board.
However, flight SQ321 experienced severe turbulence while flying close to Myanmar airspace in a region currently being battered by extreme tropical thunderstorms.
The plane dropped from an altitude of around 37,000 feet to 31,000 feet within just five minutes as it finished traversing the Andaman Sea and neared Thailand.
The plane – registered 9V-SWM – was diverted to the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok where it made an emergency landing at 15.45pm local time, the airline announced on its Facebook page.
It had been scheduled to land at the Singapore Changi Airport at 6.10pm local time.
‘Singapore Airlines flight #SQ321, operating from London (Heathrow) to Singapore on 20 May 2024, encountered severe turbulence en-route,’ the statement from the airline said. ‘The aircraft diverted to Bangkok and landed at 1545hrs local time.
‘We can confirm that there are injuries and one fatality on board the Boeing 777-300ER. There were a total of 211 passengers and 18 crew on board,’ it said.
‘Singapore Airlines offers its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased.
‘Our priority is to provide all possible assistance to all passengers and crew on board the aircraft,’ the statement added. ‘We are working with the local authorities in Thailand to provide the necessary medical assistance, and sending a team to Bangkok to provide any additional assistance needed.’
Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam said he was ‘greatly saddened by the loss of a life caused by the severe turbulence on board the SQ321 flight from London earlier today, and the injuries caused to several others,’ in a statement shared on his social media.
‘My deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased. We must hope and pray that the passengers or crew members who were injured are able to recover smoothly.
He added: ‘We do not have the details of those affected, but know that the government ministries and agencies, as well as SIA, are doing their utmost to support all those affected and working with the authorities in Bangkok’.
Singapore’s Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said his country’s government would assist the passengers and their families.
‘I am deeply saddened to learn about the incident onboard Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from London Heathrow to Singapore,’ he wrote on Facebook.
Speaking to the BBC, aviation expert John Strickland said that injuries from flight turbulence are ‘relatively rare’ considering how many flights operate each day.
‘However, severe turbulence can be dramatic and lead to severe injuries or sadly in this case a fatality,’ he added. ‘It is not for nothing that airlines recommend keeping seat belts loosely fastened throughout a flight be it long or short.’
He told the PA news agency: ‘Exposure is greater in different parts of the world.
‘The South Atlantic, Africa and the Bay of Bengal are all places that spring to mind where there’s a greater incidence,’ adding: ‘There are discussions about whether climate change is influencing an increase in occurrences.’
Mr Strickland said airlines use a variety of methods to minimise the chances of a flight being affected by trbulence, such as weather forecasts, radar and reports from aircraft ahead.
He added: ‘It can never be taken lightly when airlines recommended you keep the seatbelt loosely fastened throughout the flight.’
Marco Chan, Senior Lecturer in Aviation Operations at Buckinghamshire New University, told MailOnline that incidents involving extreme turbulence tend to occur when a plane is navigating through thunderstorms.
‘The thunderstorms, bringing possible severe ice and turbulence, are prominently displayed on the pilots’ navigation display,’ Chan – who is also an Experienced Airbus Pilot and former A330 First Officer with Hong Kong Airlines – said.
‘The pilots are expected to navigate around the thunderstorms while having the seat belt sign on as a precaution.
‘It may not be possible to completely circumvent the thunderstorm cluster as they can stretch well over 50 nautical miles plus due to airspace restrictions,’ he noted.
Turbulence-related airline accidents are the most common type, according to a 2021 study by the National Transportation Safety Board.
From 2009 through 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 aircraft damage.
In June last year, two British Airways crew suffered broken legs when a flight from Singapore to Heathrow was affected by severe turbulence over the Bay of Bengal.
A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said ‘unsecured cabin crew were thrown around in the cabin’, resulting in two crew members being seriously injured and three sustaining minor injuries. No passengers were hurt.
Singapore Airlines, widely recognised as one of the world’s leading airlines and a benchmark for much of the industry, has not had any major incidents in recent years.
Its last accident resulting in casualties was a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei, where it crashed on October 31, 2000 into construction equipment on the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after attempting to take off from the wrong runway. The crash killed 83 of the 179 people on board.
While there is no suggestion that today’s incident was the fault of the plane, it is the latest scare involving a Boeing-manufactured aircraft in recent weeks.
Questions over safety have plagued the manufacturer ever since a door plug blew out of a 737 Max on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
The safety crisis at Boeing has led to aircraft shortages, which could cause a wave of cancellations this summer as Britons prepare for their holiday getaways.
This has not been helped by a string of incidents involving Boeing planes, with May seeing at least four – with three coming in just two days.