A British man has died and seven others are in critical condition after being injured on a turbulent flight from London to Singapore.
Passengers on the Singapore Airlines flight were dramatically thrown into the air after weather conditions forced the plane to descend 6,000 feet in a matter of minutes. The pilots were then forced to make an emergency landing in Thailand just before 4 p.m. local time.
Thai authorities confirmed that a 73-year-old man had probably died of a heart attack and that his wife was also in hospital.
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Kittipong Kittikachorn, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, said 30 other passengers and crew members were also injured.
Images on social media showed food scattered on the floor and ambulances lined up outside the plane. One traumatized passenger reported that people had been thrown into the ceiling.
Other images showed a stewardess with a bloody face, and inside the plane, debris and oxygen masks were seen scattered throughout the cabin.
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The flight took off from Heathrow Airport on Monday evening before encountering poor weather conditions. There were 47 British nationals on board. In a statement, the airline said it experienced “sudden extreme turbulence” at 37,000 feet over Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Basin and had to declare a medical emergency.
“Suddenly the plane started to pitch upward and it started to shake, so I was getting ready for what was going to happen and then suddenly there was a very dramatic drop so that everyone who was sitting and wasn’t buckled in was immediately thrown into the ceiling,” said Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board the flight.
“Some people hit their heads on the luggage racks above them and damaged them, they hit the places where lights and masks are located and broke through them.”
“People were falling to the ground, my phone flew out of my hand and flew a few aisles to the side, people’s shoes were flying through the air,” he added.
“The crew and the people in the toilets were the most seriously injured because we found people just lying on the ground and unable to get up. There were a lot of spinal and head injuries,” Azmir said. “I don’t think they expected how bad it was.”
In a statement on Facebook, the airline said: “We can confirm that there are injuries and one fatality on board the Boeing 777-300ER. A total of 211 passengers and 18 crew members were on board.”
“Singapore Airlines extends its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased.
“Our priority is to provide all possible assistance to all passengers and crew on board the aircraft. We are working with local authorities in Thailand to provide the necessary medical assistance and are sending a team to Bangkok to provide any further assistance needed.”
Tracking data collected by FlightRadar24 showed the flight was flying at an altitude of 37,000 feet. Shortly after 8am BST, the Boeing 777 suddenly and steeply descended to 31,000 feet over a period of about three minutes, the data shows.
Thai authorities sent ambulances and emergency teams to the airport, and images on social media show medical staff surrounding the plane.
Singapore’s Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said the government would provide assistance to passengers and their families.
“I am deeply saddened to learn of the incident on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from London Heathrow to Singapore,” he wrote in a statement on Facebook.
Extreme tropical thunderstorms are currently occurring in the region, leading to a landing at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok.
According to a 2021 study by the National Transportation Safety Board, turbulence-related accidents are the most common type of accident.
Between 2009 and 2018, the agency found that turbulence was responsible for more than a third of reported aviation accidents, with most of them resulting in one or more serious injuries but no damage to the aircraft.
Singapore Airlines has a consistently excellent safety record and is considered one of the world’s leading airlines. Singapore Airlines’ only fatal accident involved a Boeing 747 “Jumbo Jet” taking off from Taipei in 2000.
The pilots mistakenly attempted to take off from a closed runway and collided with construction equipment. Of the 179 passengers and crew on board, 83 died and 96 survived.
Two British Airways flight attendants suffered broken legs when a flight from Singapore to Heathrow was hit by severe turbulence over the Bay of Bengal on June 28 last year.
