One particular person on a Singapore Airways flight died and dozens of others had been injured when the aircraft touring from London to Singapore “encountered surprising excessive turbulence,” the airline mentioned Tuesday. Flight SQ321 from London’s Heathrow Airport was once diverted to Bangkok and touched down at 3:45 p.m. native time Tuesday at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the service mentioned in a observation posted to its Fb web page.”We will verify that there are accidents and one fatality on board the Boeing 777-300ER,” an previous observation mentioned, including that there have been 211 passengers and 18 team participants at the aircraft.
The passenger who died was once a 73-year-old British guy, officers mentioned. Seven other people, together with some with head accidents, had been significantly injured, and dozens of others had been harm with various accidents, Suvarnabhumi Airport director Kittipong Kittikachorn mentioned at a information convention.
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Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Medical institution mentioned it handled 71 other people in general, together with six with critical accidents, information businesses reported.
A picture taken from video presentations a Singapore Airways Boeing 777-300ER sitting at the tarmac at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport surrounded by means of emergency cars on Would possibly 21, 2024, after flight SQ321 from London to Singapore was once diverted after encountering critical turbulence.
Pongsakornr Rodphai by the use of Reuters
CBS Information’ spouse community BBC Information reported that the person who died was once believed to have suffered a middle assault all over the turbulence.Video from the Thai airport confirmed passengers coming down a ramp onto the tarmac from the aircraft, which was once surrounded by means of emergency cars.A number of other people may well be observed laying on a tarp beneath a tent in a triage house crowded by means of airport and clinical team of workers.The airline presented “its inner most condolences to the circle of relatives of the deceased” and mentioned it was once offering help to all passengers and team from the flight.
Boeing additionally presented condolences to the circle of relatives of the passenger who died in a observation posted on social media. The U.S. aerospace large mentioned it was once in touch with Singapore Airways and able to give a boost to the service because it appeared into the incident.
The internal of Singapore Airways flight SQ321 is pictured after the flight was once diverted to land at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi World Airport in Thailand after encountering critical turbulence, Would possibly 21, 2024.
Reuters/Stringer
Monitoring knowledge from the FlightAware web page confirmed the Singapore Airways aircraft losing all of sudden from an altitude of about 37,000 ft to 31,000 ft within the area of handiest about 5 mins. The drop happened 10 hours into the flight from London because the Boeing 777 completed crossing the Andaman Sea and approached the Thai coast. Thunderstorms had been reported within the house.”All at once the plane begins tilting up and there was once shaking, so I began bracing for what was once going down, and really all of sudden there was once an overly dramatic drop, so everybody seated and now not dressed in seatbelt was once introduced right away into the ceiling,” passenger Dzafran Azmir instructed the Reuters information company. “Some other people hit their heads at the luggage cabins overhead and dented it. They hit the puts the place lighting and mask are and broke directly via it.”
Emergency medics assess and deal with other people suffering from critical turbulence on board Singapore Airways Flight SQ321, in a triage house at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, Would possibly 21, 2024, after the flight from London to Singapore was once diverted to the Thai airport.
Pongsakornr Rodphai by the use of Reuters
Every other passenger, Andrew Davies, who spoke with BBC Information on Tuesday concerning the harrowing flight, posted a sequence of messages on social media previous describing the incident.
“Terrible revel in,” he mentioned. “A lot of people injured — together with the air stewards who had been stoic and did the entirety they might.”Davies mentioned there was once “little or no caution” sooner than the aircraft plummeted, however that the seatbelt caution gentle had come on.”I placed on my seatbelt straightaway then the aircraft simply dropped,” he mentioned, describing chaos within the cabin as other people shouted for a defibrillator and passengers with clinical coaching attempted to help the ones injured.”Some of the Singapore Airways team mentioned it was once by means of a long way the worst in her 30 years of flying,” Davies mentioned in a single tweet, including: “Lesson is — put on a seatbelt at ALL TIMES. Any person who’s injured, was once now not dressed in a seatbelt.”4 American citizens had been at the flight, in line with the airline. The remainder of the passengers integrated 56 from Australia, 47 from the U.Ok., 41 from Singapore, 23 from New Zealand, 16 from Malaysia, 5 from the Philippines, 4 from Eire, 3 from India, two every from Canada, Indonesia, Myanmar and Spain, and one every from Germany, Iceland, Israel and South Korea.
Whilst in-flight turbulence is increasingly more not unusual on many routes, deaths and severe accidents are uncommon. 4 other people had been injured by means of critical turbulence on a home U.S. flight in Florida in July 2023.An investigation is underway into the Singapore Airways incident.”It is extraordinarily uncommon to have a turbulence tournament lead to fatalities,” mentioned CBS Information aviation analyst and previous NTSB chair Robert Sumwalt.”What I might name this at this time is an in-flight dissatisfied — whether or not that could be a results of atmospheric turbulence or whether or not it is the results of one thing else,” he mentioned, including, “Too early to grasp evidently at this level.”
How local weather alternate is making flight turbulence worse
Even if the reasons on this incident don’t seem to be but transparent, climatologists have warned vacationers to brace for extra flight delays and cancellations and extra common and extra critical turbulence, particularly on routes over the arena’s fast-warming oceans, on account of local weather alternate.CBS Information local weather manufacturer Tracy Wholf says the affects of local weather alternate on air trip are a long way broader than simply expanding turbulence, with airports being suffering from exacerbated flooding, excessive warmth and precipitation hindering takeoffs and landings or even a upward push in midair lightning moves.–Kris Van Cleave and Alex Sundby contributed reporting.
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Tucker Reals
Tucker Reals is CBSNews.com’s overseas editor, primarily based within the CBS Information London bureau. He has labored for CBS Information since 2006, previous to which he labored for The Related Press in Washington D.C. and London.
