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Severe turbulence on Singapore Airlines flight 321 from London leaves one dead, others injured, airline says

May 21, 2024 Benjamin Hughes

Singapore Airlines said Tuesday that one person died and others were injured when a flight from London to Singapore hit severe turbulence. Flight SQ321 from London’s Heathrow Airport was diverted to Bangkok and touched down just before 4 p.m. local time Tuesday at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the airline said in a statement posted to its Facebook page.

“We can confirm that there are injuries and one fatality on board the Boeing 777-300ER,” the statement said, adding that there were 211 passengers and 18 crew members on the plane. CBS News partner network BBC News later reported that the fatality was a male British passenger aged about 70 who suffered a heart attack during the turbulence, but neither the airline nor Thai officials immediately confirmed those details.

The airline did not say how many were injured, but Thai media outlets said first responders were treating roughly 30 people. Video from Suvarnabhumi Airport showed passengers coming down a ramp onto the tarmac from the plane, which was surrounded by emergency vehicles.   

Several people could be seen laying on a tarp under a tent in a triage area crowded by airport and medical staff.

statement posted on social media and said it was in contact with Singapore Airlines and stood ready to support the carrier as it looked into the incident. 

Tracking data from the FlightAware website showed the Singapore Airlines plane dropping suddenly from an altitude of about 37,000 feet to 31,000 feet in the space of only about five minutes. The drop came about 11 hours into the flight from London as the Boeing finished crossing the Andaman Sea and approached the Thai coast.    

“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,” passenger Dzafran Azmir told the Reuters news agency. “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.”

While in-flight turbulence is increasingly common on many routes, deaths and serious injuries are rare. Four people were injured by severe turbulence on a domestic U.S. flight in Florida in July 2023.

Climatologists have warned travelers to brace for more flight delays and cancellations and more frequent and more severe turbulence, especially on routes over the world’s fast-warming oceans, as a result of climate change.

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Source: cbsnews.com