One person has died and dozens have been injured on a Singapore Airlines flight that had to make an emergency landing in Bangkok at 10:45 a.m. Spanish time on Tuesday due to strong turbulence. The flight, which left London Heathrow airport on Monday night, was headed to Singapore.
According to company data, 211 passengers and 18 crew members were traveling on the Boeing 777-300ER plane. “Suddenly the plane started to tilt and there were tremors. I began to prepare for what was happening and, suddenly, there was a very dramatic fall, so that everyone who was sitting and without seat belts was suddenly thrown towards the ceiling,” described Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old young man. on board the flight, to Reuters. “Some people hit their heads on the luggage compartments above.”
The company has not confirmed at what point on the journey this incident occurred. According to data recorded by FlightRadar 24which allows us to know the speed and altitude of the flights, after about 11 hours from takeoff in London, the plane descended sharply from an altitude of around 11,300 meters to 9,500 meters in just five minutes, and then stabilized, finishing crossing the Andaman Sea and land in Thailand.
As soon as the pilot requested a runway at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, emergency services were activated to treat the injured passengers, according to a spokesperson for the facility. A dozen ambulances were mobilized to the foot of the track, local media report, which estimates that around 30 people have suffered injuries, especially head trauma. For their part, the Thai immigration police have reported that, once the aircraft has landed, the uninjured passengers have been disembarked, while medical personnel have initially entered the cabin to assess the injuries of the injured, of whom are still There is no confirmation of the exact number.
Singapore Airlines flights #SQ321, operating from London (Heathrow) to Singapore on 20 May 2024, encountered severe turbulence en-route. The aircraft diverted to Bangkok and landed at 1545hrs local time on 21 May 2024.
We can confirm that there are injuries and one fatality on…
— Singapore Airlines (@SingaporeAir) May 21, 2024
“Our priority is to provide all possible assistance,” the airline said in a message on its X profile, in which it also offered “its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased.” “We are working with local authorities in Thailand to provide the necessary medical assistance.” According to the Aviation Safety Network, this is the eighth incident recorded by the operator Singapore Airlines throughout its history. The last one was in November 2017, when the crane towing one of its aircraft caught fire at Singapore International Airport and they had to evacuate the cabin.
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For his part, Singapore’s Transport Minister, Chee Hong Tat, has expressed on social media his “sadness” over the incident on board and expressed his “condolences” to the family of the deceased.
Turbulence hardly represents a safety hazard. However, a study from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, published in 2023, showed that the total annual duration of severe turbulence increased by 55% in the last 40 years, and that these episodes could triple by the end of the century.
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