One person died and 30 others were injured on a Singapore Airlines plane that experienced severe turbulence en route from London to Singapore and had to make an emergency landing in Bangkok on Tuesday.
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Flight tracking data indicates the Boeing fell more than 1,800 meters in just five minutes over the Andaman Sea.
Andrew Davies, a British passenger on board, told BBC Radio 5 that the plane had “suddenly gone down” and there had been “very little warning”.
“During the few seconds after the plane went down, we heard a terrible scream and what sounded like a thud,” he said, adding that he helped a woman who was “screaming at agony” and who had a “gash on the head”.
He described seeing people with head lacerations and bleeding ears: “I was covered in coffee. The turbulence was incredibly strong.
Flight SQ321 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport and encountered “severe turbulence” en route, Singapore Airlines said.
“We can confirm that there are injuries and one death on board the Boeing 777-300ER. There were a total of 211 passengers and 18 crew members,” the airline said on Facebook.
Kittipong Kittikachorn, director of Suvarnabhumi Airport, said the passenger who died was a 73-year-old British man.
He added that most of the injured suffered from head impacts and seven of them were in critical condition.
Of the passengers, 56 were Australian, 47 British and 41 Singaporean, the airline said.
A total of 30 passengers and crew members suffered injuries in the incident, Singapore Airlines and the airport reported.
Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital in Bangkok said a total of 71 people had been treated, including six seriously injured.
“We sincerely apologize for the traumatic experience experienced by our passengers and crew members on this flight. We are providing all necessary assistance during this difficult period,” the airline assured.
This is the latest incident involving a Boeing, following the explosion of a fuselage panel of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX in January, as well as two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.
It came at a time when parts of Thailand were experiencing thunderstorms at the very beginning of the rainy season.
AFP
Singapore sends investigators
“At 3:35 p.m. (08:35 GMT), the airport received a distress call from the Singapore Airlines flight indicating that there were passengers on board injured by turbulence and requesting an emergency landing,” Suvarnabhumi Airport told in a statement.
At 3:45 p.m. local time (08:45 GMT), the Boeing 777 landed on the runway and ambulances rushed towards it with sirens blaring and flashing lights flashing.
Scientists say climate change is likely to cause more turbulence, invisible to radar.
According to a study carried out in 2023, the annual duration of turbulence increased by 17% between 1979 and 2020 and severe turbulence, which is rarer, by more than 50%.
Singapore’s Transport Ministry announced it was sending investigators to Bangkok and the city-state’s president, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, said he was “praying” that the injured would recover.
AFP
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family who lost a loved one and our thoughts are with the passengers and crew,” Boeing reacted on the social network X, saying it was “ready to support” Singapore Airlines.
The American aviation giant is rocked by multiple crises linked to production and quality control problems, which led to the departure of its CEO Dave Calhoun.
By May 28, Boeing must submit to the American aviation regulator, the FAA – which has frozen production of the 737 MAX indefinitely – a “comprehensive action plan” to remedy the numerous non-compliance problems. .
At the same time, this company must negotiate with the International Union of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) the collective agreement which will replace the one expiring in September.
