Written by Chayut Situboonsarng and Pano Wongcha Om
BANGKOK (Reuters) – One passenger died of a suspected heart attack and 30 others were injured after a Singapore Airlines plane ran into severe turbulence on Tuesday, flinging passengers and crew around the cabin and forcing the plane to land in Bangkok. The airline said.
Kittipong Kittikashorn, Director General of Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, said in a press conference that the plane heading from London and heading to Singapore fell into an air pocket while the plane crew was serving breakfast before it encountered air turbulence, prompting the pilots to request an emergency landing.
The airline said the sudden turbulence occurred over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar about 10 hours into the flight. She added that the pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the plane to Bangkok, without providing further details.
Reuters was unable to confirm the sequence of events or whether the medical emergency occurred before the unrest.
Pictures from inside the plane showed large gashes in the upper cabin panels, gas masks and panels hanging from the ceiling, and items from hand luggage scattered around. One passenger said some people's heads hit the lights above the seats and punctured the panels.
“I saw things thrown everywhere and many air crew members with bruises,” Kittikashorn said after the seriously injured passengers and crew members were evacuated.
Kittikashorn said a 73-year-old British man died during the incident, most likely from a heart attack. Seven people were seriously injured, some with head injuries. He added that people were calm as they were taken out of the plane.
The airline said: “Singapore Airlines extends its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased. We deeply apologize for the traumatic experience our passengers and crew had to endure on this flight.”
Some statistics of the injured varied among the 211 passengers and 18 crew members. The airline said that 18 people were taken to hospital, while 12 were being treated in hospitals. Samitivej Hospital said it was treating 71 passengers.
It was not immediately possible to reconstruct the accident from publicly available tracking data, but a spokesman for FlightRadar 24 said it was analyzing data around 0749 GMT that showed the plane tilting upward and returning to cruising altitude within one minute.
A passenger on board the Boeing (NYSE:) 777-300ER told Reuters that the incident involved the sensation of rising and then descending.
Dezvran Izmir, 28, said: “Suddenly the plane started tilting upwards and there was shaking, so I started preparing for what was happening, and suddenly there was a very big drop, so everyone who was sitting and not wearing a seat belt was immediately launched into the ceiling.” A year-old student on the plane told Reuters.
He added, “Some people hit their heads on the luggage compartments at the top and caused a dent. They hit the places where the lights and masks are located and broke into them directly.”
Kittikashorn said most of the passengers he spoke to were wearing seat belts.
Regarding the data showing a drop in altitude, a spokesperson told FlightRadar 24, “Our initial thinking is that the turbulence event precedes the record drop from 37,000 to 31,000 feet. This appears to be simply a change in flight level in preparation for landing.”
Suvarnabhumi Airport said the plane requested an emergency landing at 3:35 pm local time (0835 GMT) and landed at 3:51 pm, as uninjured passengers disembarked to board another plane.
Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) will deploy investigators to Bangkok to look into the accident.
disturbance
Turbulence-related aviation accidents are the most common type, according to a 2021 study by the US National Transportation Safety Board.
From 2009 to 2018, the US agency found that turbulence accounted for more than a third of reported aviation accidents, and most resulted in one or more serious injuries, but no damage to the aircraft. She added that the NTSB is sending representatives to support Singapore's investigation into the incident.
Singapore Airlines, widely recognized as one of the world's leading airlines and a benchmark for much of the industry, has not seen any major accidents in recent years.
Its last accident that resulted in casualties was a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei, which on October 31, 2000, collided with construction equipment at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after trying to take off from the wrong runway. The accident led to the death of 83 out of 179 people on board.
Singapore Airlines has had seven incidents, according to Aviation Safety Network records.
Boeing said it is in contact with Singapore Airlines and is ready to provide support. She referred further questions to the airline and local authorities.