Achi news desk-
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – More than 140 passengers and crew from Singapore Airlines ( SIAL.SI ), opening a new tab flight hit by heavy turbulence that left dozens injured and one dead finally arrived in Singapore on relief flight on Wednesday morning after an emergency landing in Bangkok.
The scheduled flight from London-Singapore on Boeing ( BA.N ), opens a new tab 777-300ER plane diverted to Bangkok after the plane was hit by turbulence and passengers and crew were injured around the cabin, slamming some into the ceiling.
A 73-year-old British passenger died of a suspected heart attack, and at least 30 people were injured. “I saw people from all over the aisle going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and landing back down in very awkward positions. People, like, getting huge gasses in the head, concussions,” said Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board. the flight, to Reuters after arriving in Singapore.
Photographs of the interior of the plane showed gases in the overhead cabin panels, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling and luggage strewn about. A passenger said some people’s heads slammed into the lights above the seats and broke the panels.
Singapore Airlines took 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; injured flyers and their families remained in Bangkok.
The general manager of Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport, Kittipong Kittikachorn, said on Tuesday that seven people were seriously injured. “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.
Officials from Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday evening, Singapore’s Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said in a statement on Facebook.
As the incident involved a US company, Boeing, which makes the 777-300ER aircraft, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was sending an accredited representative and four technical advisers to support the investigation , he said.
The plane encountered sudden extreme turbulence, Goh said, and the pilot then 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 rate, consistent with a sudden turbulence event”, based on flight tracking data.
Weather forecast service AccuWeather said on Tuesday that rapidly developing, explosive thunderstorms near the flight path of Flight 321 were most likely to contribute to violent turbulence.
“Developing thunderstorms often have strong updrafts, a zone of upward-moving air that rises very quickly, sometimes in excess of 100 mph, and can leave little time for pilots to react if happening right in front of the plane,” said Dan DePodwin , AccuWeather Senior Director of Forecasting Operations.
The sudden turbulence occurred over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar, about 10 hours into the flight, Singapore Airlines said. “It is not a rare occurrence for large thunderstorms in the Bay of Bengal. There is always a chance of bumps,” said an airline pilot who flies regularly to Singapore and Southeast Asia. The pilot declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
“We were about 30 miles off the track flying around the thunderstorms two days ago on the way to Singapore,” added the pilot.
