1 dead, at least 30 hurt as 'extreme turbulence' rocks Singapore Airlines flight

21.05.2024 - 15:47 / thepointsguy.com / Alice Springs

One person was killed on Monday night and more than 30 were injured after a Singapore Airways flight from London to Singapore was rocked by severe turbulence.

A total of 211 passengers and 18 crewmembers were on board the Singapore Flight 321, which diverted to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) after encountering "sudden extreme turbulence," the airline said.

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The passenger who died was a 73-year-old British man who appeared to have died from a heart attack and had a history of heart problems, the BBC and Wall Street Journal reported, citing authorities in Bangkok. Scores of other passengers were hurt, although the total count was not immediately clear. Thirty passengers were brought to hospitals in Bangkok for treatment, the airline said, while the BBC cited BKK airport officials in reporting that a total of 53 passengers were injured — seven critically — as well as nine crew members.

"Singapore Airlines offers its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased," the airline said in a statement. "We deeply apologise for the traumatic experience that our passengers and crew members suffered on this flight."

The flight was operated on a Boeing 777-300ER, the airline said, which was delivered new to Singapore in 2008, according to Airfleets.net. It was in storage in Alice Springs, Australia, from December 2021 until last month.

The incident occurred about 10 hours into the flight, the airline said in a statement, as the flight passed over the Irrawaddy River Basin in Malaysia. The flight diverted to Bangkok and landed about an hour after the event, according to flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.

The turbulence hit shortly after passengers began to put on their seatbelts, the general manager of BKK, Kittipong Kittikachorn said, according to the BBC, although it was not immediately clear whether that was because the pilots had turned on the fasten-seatbelt sign.

Dzafran Azmir, a passenger on the flight, described experiencing turbulence ahead of feeling a sudden drop.

"Suddenly the aircraft starts tilting up and there was shaking so I started bracing for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop so everyone seated and not wearing a seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling," Azmir told Reuters.

"Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it, they hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it," Azmir added.

Images from inside the flight circulating on social media appeared to show objects strewn about the cabin, along with panels from the cabin's walls and ceilings that appear to have fallen off during the turbulence. Other