Fatalities and serious injuries from turbulence are rare, but climate change is making it worse

26.05.2024 - 22:57 / euronews.com / Paul Williams / Rebecca Ann Hughes

Severe turbulence that hit a Singapore Airlines flight from London has resulted in one death and several injuries.

What happened on board the Boeing 777-300ER flight to Singapore is still not clear.

Airline tracking websites have noted that the aircraft dropped around 1,800 metres in three minutes when it flew into the rough air beyond the Bay of Bengal.

Fatalities and serious injuries from turbulence are thankfully very rare. Flight crews can often predict bad weather and rough air in advance and are trained to deal with the effects.

Around 20 passengers were injured and some reportedly received first aid for head wounds.

"Turbulence fatalities on commercial flights are fortunately very rare, but have sadly increased by one today," Dr Paul Williams, Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading told Euronews Travel.

"Turbulence on flights can be caused by storms, mountains, and strong air currents called jet streams.

In this last case, it is called clear-air turbulence, and it can be difficult to avoid because it doesn't show up on the weather radar in the flight deck.

A detailed analysis of the meteorological circumstances and the particular type of turbulence that caused today's fatality will take some time."

It is also difficult to predict when it will hit because it is caused by small-scale eddies that are too localised for most weather models to calculate.

Turbulence is the primary cause of non-fatal injuries to passengers and crew, according to the International Air Transport Association.

But deaths and severe injuries on large aircraft do not occur often.

Between 2009 and 2021, 146 passengers and crew were seriously hurt in incidents of turbulence, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

In December 2022, 20 people were hospitalised after turbulence on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Phoenix to Honolulu.

In March 2023, a passenger died after severe turbulence hit the business jet she was travelling on.

Last August, 11 people required hospitalisation after a Delta flight encountered rough air on its descent into Atlanta.

The injuries reportedly included lacerations, broken bones, head wounds and loss of consciousness, mainly due to passengers not wearing their seatbelts.

"It is not for nothing that airlines recommend keeping seat belts loosely fastened throughout a flight be it long or short," John Strickland, a general aviation expert, told the BBC.

Because they have to be on their feet for longer than passengers, flight attendants are the most vulnerable on a plane - in fact, they are 24 times more likely to be seriously injured.

Last year, a study by meteorologists at the University of Reading in the UK found that skies are up to 55 per cent bumpier than four decades ago due to climat