131 passengers and 12 crew members, all traumatized, landed in Singapore, via another flight, this Wednesday morning, after the severe turbulence experienced by their flight from London which caused the death of a passenger and a landing emergency in Bangkok. Singapore Airlines Flight SQ321 experienced “extreme and sudden turbulence” at 11,000m above Myanmar ten hours after takeoff on Tuesday, rising suddenly and diving several times.
According to a passenger, people on board were thrown into the cabin with such force that their skulls hit the ceiling, causing significant head injuries to dozens of people. Photos taken on the plane, an aircraft from US manufacturer Boeing, show a cabin littered with food, drink bottles and luggage, as well as oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.
The plane, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members, made an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where medical staff carried the injured on stretchers to ambulances waiting on the tarmac . A 73-year-old British man died, and according to Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital in Bangkok, 71 people, including six seriously injured, were taken in for treatment. According to the capital’s airport, 83 people on board were injured.
“Incredibly strong turbulence”
They were greeted by relieved relatives, but none wanted to speak to journalists. Andrew Davies, a British passenger on board, told BBC Radio 5 that the plane had “suddenly gone down” and there had been “very little warning”. “During the few seconds after the plane went down, we heard a terrible scream and what sounded like a thud,” he said, adding that he helped a woman who was “screaming at agony” and who had a “gash on the head”.
He thought the plane was going to crash, he said in a BBC podcast. He described people with head lacerations and bleeding ears: “I was covered in coffee. The turbulence was incredibly strong.”
“A crazy flight”
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sent his “deepest condolences” to the family and loved ones of the deceased passenger, Geoff Kitchen, a theater manager near Bristol. The city-state sent a team of investigators to Bangkok and Lawrence Wong assured that his country was “working closely with the Thai authorities”.
Of the passengers, 56 were Australians, 47 British and 41 Singaporeans, the airline said. “It is too early to know exactly what happened. But I think passengers are generally lacking in precautions,” Anthony Brickhouse, an American air safety expert, told AFP. “As soon as the signal goes off, most of them immediately take off their seat belts. »
According to Andrew Davies, “the plane suddenly collapsed” just as the seat belt signal had just come on. Allison Barker, whose son Josh was on the plane, told the BBC he texted her about “a crazy flight” that had to make an emergency landing. “We didn’t know if he had survived, it was so scary. I spent the longest two hours of my life,” she said.
More turbulence with climate change
An initial analysis of the data by flight tracking service Flightradar24 showed that the aircraft experienced extreme turbulence for more than a minute at around 11,300 m above Myanmar, during which the plane crashed. rose violently then plunged several times.
Scientists say climate change is likely to cause more turbulence, invisible to radar. According to a study carried out in 2023, the annual duration of turbulence increased by 17% between 1979 and 2020 and severe, rarer turbulence by more than 50%.
This is the latest incident involving a Boeing, following the explosion of a fuselage panel of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX in January, as well as two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. The American airline giant aviation is rocked by multiple crises linked to production and quality control problems, which led to the departure of its CEO Dave Calhoun.
By May 28, Boeing must submit to the American aviation regulator, the FAA – which has frozen production of the 737 MAX indefinitely – a “comprehensive action plan” to remedy the numerous non-compliance problems. .