Severe turbulence rocks Singapore Airlines flight, one dead and several injured

BANGKOK – A Singapore Airlines flight encountered severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean and descended 6,000 feet (about 1,800 meters) in about three minutes, the airline said Tuesday. A Briton died and more than two dozen other passengers were injured.

The flight was then diverted and landed in Bangkok in stormy weather.

Authorities said the 73-year-old Briton may have suffered a heart attack, although this has not been confirmed. His name was not immediately released.

The Boeing 777 flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to Singapore with 211 passengers and 18 crew on board landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, the airline said in a Facebook post.

British passenger Andrew Davies told Sky News that “anyone who was wearing a seatbelt is not injured.”

He said the seat belt sign was illuminated, but crew members did not have time to take their seats.

“Every single cabin crew I saw was injured in one way or another, perhaps with a cut to the head,” Davies said. “One had a bad back and was in significant pain.”

Rescue workers rushed to help the passengers. Videos posted by Suvarnabhumi Airport on messaging platform LINE showed several ambulances flocking to the scene of the accident.

Kittipong Kittikachorn, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, told a news conference on Tuesday evening that the Briton appeared to have suffered a heart attack, but medical authorities needed to confirm this.

He said seven passengers were seriously injured and 23 passengers and nine crew suffered moderate injuries. Sixteen other people with less serious injuries were treated in hospital, while another 14 were treated at the airport, Kittipong said.

Kittipong said the sudden descent happened just as passengers were being served their food. It is the first time that Suvarnabhumi Airport has dealt with a fatality caused by turbulence in the air, he added.

Thai airport authorities said passengers with minor injuries and those who are not injured will be cared for at a specially designated location in the airport terminal.

Thailand’s Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungruangkit said Singapore would send another plane to transport those who could travel to the city-state’s Changi Airport.

Tracking data collected by FlightRadar24 and analyzed by The Associated Press shows Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 flying at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,300 meters).

According to the data, the Boeing 777-300ER suddenly and steeply descends to an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400 meters) in about three minutes. The plane then remained at 31,000 feet (9,400 meters) for less than ten minutes before making a diversion and landing in Bangkok less than half an hour later.

The sharp descent into turbulence occurred as the flight took place over the Andaman Sea near Myanmar. The plane was transmitting the “squawk code” 7700, an international distress signal.

Details about the weather at the time were not immediately released. Most people associate turbulence with severe storms. The most dangerous type, however, is the so-called clear air turbulence. Wind shear can occur in thin cirrus clouds or even in clear air near thunderstorms because differences in temperature and pressure create strong currents of fast-moving air.

The problem of turbulence was highlighted last December when a total of 41 people were injured or required medical treatment on two separate flights in the United States on two consecutive days.

According to a 2021 report from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, between 2009 and 2018, 37.6% of all accidents on major commercial airlines were due to turbulence. The Federal Aviation Administration, another U.S. government agency, said after the December incidents that there were 146 serious injuries caused by turbulence from 2009 to 2021.

Boeing, the maker of the Singapore Airlines plane that hit turbulence, expressed its condolences to the dead man’s family and said it was “in contact with Singapore Airlines regarding Flight SQ321 and stands ready to support them.”

The wide-body Boeing 777 is a workhorse of the aviation industry and is used by airlines around the world primarily for long-haul flights.

The 777-300ER variant of the twin-aisle, twin-engine aircraft is larger and can carry more passengers than previous models.

Singapore Airlines, the city-state’s flagship carrier, operates 22 of these aircraft as part of its fleet of more than 140 aircraft. The airline’s parent company is majority owned by Singapore’s state-owned investment conglomerate Temasek and also operates low-cost carrier Scoot.

Singapore’s Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat also expressed his condolences on his Facebook page. He said his ministry and Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the country’s Civil Aviation Authority and Changi Airport officials and airline staff, are “providing support to the affected passengers and their families.”

The ministry’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau said it was investigating the incident, was in contact with its Thai counterpart and would send investigators to Bangkok.

Singapore Airlines said the nationalities of the passengers are: 56 Australians, two Canadians, one German, three Indians, two Indonesians, one from Iceland, four from Ireland, one Israeli, 16 Malaysians, two from Myanmar, 23 from New Zealand, five Filipinos, 41 from Singapore, one South Korean, two Spaniards, 47 from the United Kingdom and four from the United States.

Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.