Severe turbulence on Singapore Airlines Flight 321 from London leaves 1 dead, others injured, airline says

Singapore Airlines said Tuesday that one person died and others were injured when a flight from London to Singapore “encountered sudden and extreme turbulence.” Flight SQ321 from London’s Heathrow Airport was diverted to Bangkok and landed at 3:45 p.m. local time at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Tuesday, the airline said in a statement on 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 board the aircraft.

Suvarnabhumi Airport Director Kittipong Kittikachorn was quoted by various news agencies as saying at a press conference that the fatality was a 73-year-old British passenger. He added that most of the 30 people injured, including passengers and crew members, suffered blows to the head. Seven of the people were in critical condition, according to Kittikachorn.

CBS News’ sister network BBC News reported that the man who died may have suffered a heart attack during the turbulence.

Video from the Thai airport shows passengers walking down a ramp leading to the tarmac from the plane, which was surrounded by emergency vehicles.

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

The airline offered “its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased” and said it would provide assistance to all passengers and crew on the flight.

Boeing also offered its condolences to the family of the deceased passenger in a statement posted on social media. The American aerospace giant said it was in contact with Singapore Airlines and ready to support the company in the investigation into the incident.

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

“Suddenly the plane started to tilt and there was shaking, so I started to prepare myself for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic fall, so everyone sitting and not wearing a seat belt was immediately thrown into the ceiling,” said passenger Dzafran Azmir. the Reuters news agency. “Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins above their heads and dented it. They hit the places where the lights and masks are and went through the cabin.”

Another passenger, Andrew Davies, who spoke to BBC News on Tuesday about the harrowing flight, earlier posted a series of messages on social media describing the incident.

“A horrible experience,” he said. “A lot of people were injured, including the stewards who were stoic and did everything they could.”

Davies said there had been “very little warning” before the plane went down, but the seat belt warning light had come on.

“I immediately put my seat belt on, and then the plane landed,” he said, describing the chaos in the cabin as people demanded a defibrillator and passengers with medical training attempted to help the injured.

“One of the Singapore Airlines crew said this was by far the worst in his 30 years of flying,” Davies said in a tweet, adding: “The lesson is: wear a seat belt. safety at ANY TIME. Anyone injured was not wearing a seat belt.

Although in-flight turbulence is becoming more common on many routes, fatalities and serious injuries are rare. Four people were injured by severe turbulence on a US domestic flight in Florida in July 2023.

Climatologists have warned travelers to prepare for more flight delays and cancellations and more frequent and severe turbulence, particularly on routes across the world’s rapidly warming oceans, due to climate change.

CBS News climate producer Tracy Wholf says the impacts of climate change on air travel go far beyond just increased turbulence, with airports affected by exacerbated floodingextreme heat and precipitation hampering takeoffs and landings and even an increase in in-flight lightning.