One dead and dozens injured due to strong turbulence on a flight from London to Singapore

One man has died and 30 people have been injured on a Singapore Airlines flight that had to make an emergency landing in Bangkok (Thailand) at 10:45 a.m. Spanish peninsular time on Tuesday due to strong turbulence. The flight, which left London Heathrow airport on Monday night, was headed to Singapore. The deceased is a 73-year-old British citizen who was traveling with his wife and who “probably suffered a heart attack,” the general director of Suvarnabhumi airport reported in an appearance. Among the injured, seven are in critical condition, he said.

According to company data, there were 211 passengers on the Boeing 777-300ER plane—two of them Spanish—and 18 crew members; the majority of travelers were Australian (52), British (47) and Singaporeans (41). “Suddenly, the plane started to tilt and there were tremors. I began to prepare for what was happening and there was a very drastic fall, so everyone who was sitting and without a seat belt was suddenly thrown towards the ceiling,” described Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old young man who was going to board the flight, to the Reuters agency. “Some people hit their heads on the luggage compartments above,” he added.

“Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight SQ321, which operated from London [Heathrow] to Singapore on May 20, 2024, encountered sudden extreme turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin at 37,000 feet [11.300 metros] around 10 hours after your departure. The pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the plane to Bangkok,” the company expanded on his Facebook profile. According to data recorded by FlightRadar 24, which allows us to know the speed and altitude of the flights, the plane descended sharply from about 11,300 meters to 9,500 in just five minutes, then stabilized, finished crossing the Andaman Sea, and landed in Thailand. . The aircraft “had two or three hours left to reach its destination,” as explained by the airport authorities.

As soon as the pilot requested a runway at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, emergency services were activated to treat the injured passengers. A dozen ambulances have been mobilized at the foot of the track to treat injuries, mainly head injuries. Thai immigration police have reported that once the aircraft landed, the uninjured passengers were disembarked, while medical staff entered the cabin to assess the injuries of the injured. Five hours after landing, the airline has confirmed that 18 have been hospitalized and 12 have been treated in different health centers.

“Our priority is to provide all possible assistance,” Singapore Airlines said in a message on its X profile, in which it also offered its “deepest condolences” to the family of the deceased. “We deeply apologize for the traumatic experience our passengers and crew members have suffered on this flight. We are providing all necessary assistance during this difficult time. (…) A Singapore Airlines team is on its way to Bangkok to provide any additional assistance that may be required,” they later published in a post on Facebook, where they updated the latest information available and provided contact numbers for the relatives of the passage. For his part, Singapore’s Transport Minister, Chee Hong Tat, has expressed his “sadness” over the incident on social media and sent his condolences to the family of the deceased.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, this is the eighth incident recorded by the Singapore Airlines operator in its entire 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. 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 events could triple by the end of the century. .

Follow all the international information onFacebook andxor inour weekly newsletter.