On a relief flight to Singapore earlier this morning, more than 140 passengers and crew members were on board a flight that had been hit by serious turbulence.
People on the SQ321 ferry from London to Singapore shared instances of “absolute terror,” with one customer reporting hearing another woman “screaming in agony” and another witness reporting seeing a person with an “awful scar on her head.
A 73- year- old English man, Geoff Kitchen, died from a suspected heart attack ashore, while many others remain critically injured.
The turbulence that struck the helicopter reportedly caused Mr. Kitchen to have a heart attack. According to reports, he and his family were also on board and that he was on his approach to Singapore to begin a six-week vacation.
The Singapore- bound Boeing 777- 300ER diverted to Bangkok following the late- heat event, making an incident landing at 15: 45 local time ( 08: 45 GMT ) with some 211 passengers and 18 crew aboard.
Smitivej Hospital, in Bangkok, said 104 people were treated and 58 remain in clinics, 20 of whom are in the intensive care unit.
There are 15 British also being treated in hospital, with six in extensive treatment, the doctor said.
Andrew Davies, a British passenger onboard the Boeing 777- 300ER, told the BBC’s Radio 5 Live that the plane” suddenly dropped …]with ] very little warning”.
” Seeing items and items flying through the air is what I remember most.” I was covered in caffeine. It was very serious turbulence”, he said.
According to another passenger, those without seatbelts were “launched right into the roof.”
” Quite suddenly there was a very dramatic drop, so people seated and without a belt was immediately launched into the roof,” scholar Dzafran Azmir, 28, told Reuters.
” I observed people from across the aisle squatting down in awkward positions, hitting the ceiling, and coming back down.” People getting massive gashes in the head concussions”.
The people’s heads “pushed through” some of the panels, according to Mr. Azmir, who added that some of the panels had been “pushed through” by the passengers.
ReutersAnother Briton, Jerry, 68, was travelling to Australia for his son’s wedding. He claimed that the “plane plunged” without any prior warning.
” I hit my head on the ceiling, my wife did- some poor people who were walking around ended up doing somersaults”, he recalled.
” My son was thrown down on the ground two rows behind me. I heard that there was a guy hitting the roof in the toilet and he was injured quite badly, too”, he said, speaking from a Thai hospital. He continued, “lucky enough” for him and his family to survive without their deaths.
The family had planned to travel to Australia for his son’s wedding on Friday, but he claimed he would not be able to make it.
One Singaporean man, whose son was onboard the plane, said he was” thrown all over the place”.
Chiew says his 22- year- old son was in London on holiday visiting his girlfriend, who was studying there on an exchange programme. When turbulence struck, the pair was returning to Singapore.
He told the BBC:” My son was on his way to the restroom, while his girlfriend was seated. Both are okay.
” He said he was n’t injured, he was all right- but he’s a bit bruised, he was thrown all over the place.”
He claimed that his son had messaged him yesterday afternoon to let him know that the flight had been diverted.
An airline official said that about 10 hours into its flight, the plane had encountered” sudden extreme turbulence “over Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Basin at 37, 000 feet.
Reuters
ReutersSingapore Airlines also provided details on the nationalities of those on the flight, which included 56 people from Australia and 47 from the UK.
Allison Barker said she received a message from her son, Josh, who was on the plane en route to Bali:” I do n’t want to scare you, but I’m on a crazy flight. The plane is making an emergency landing… I love you all.”
After that message, she waited for a” petrifying” two hours before hearing from him again.
” One minute, he was just sitting down wearing a seatbelt, the next minute, he must have blacked out because he found himself on the floor with other people,” she told the BBC.
She claimed that Josh had minor wounds, but she is concerned that coming close to dying might have a lasting effect on him.
The head of Singapore Airlines, Goh Choon Phong, apologised on Wednesday morning, saying the carrier was” very sorry for the traumatic experience”.
In a video statement, Mr Goh said the airline was” fully cooperating with relevant authorities on the investigations”.
Additionally, he expressed his condolences to the victim’s family, adding that they would “provide all possible assistance” to the passengers and crew members.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong also expressed his condolences to the deceased’s family and loved ones, adding that Singapore was “working closely with Thai authorities.”
He added that the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau of Singapore would conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.
Singapore Airlines accidents are uncommon, and the airline consistently ranks among the safest in the world.
A Boeing 747 crashed in a 2000 fatal accident while taking off from the wrong runway at a Taiwan airport.
Some 83 people of the 179 people onboard were killed.
There is” clear air “turbulence that is not visible on a jet’s weather radar, but it is most frequently caused by aircraft flying through clouds.
In the context of the millions of flights that are operated, severe turbulence injuries are comparatively uncommon, according to aviation expert John Strickland.
Sally Gethin, a journalist covering aviation, claimed that putting on a seatbelt could mean the difference between “living and dying” and “being alive in a turbulent environment.”
In the future, severe turbulence will become more likely, according to research.