Afrigather The inside of Singapore Airline flight SQ321 is pictured after an emergency touchdown at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Worldwide Airport, Thailand, Could 21, 2024.
Stringer | Reuters
One particular person died and 30 individuals had been injured aboard a Singapore Airways flight that was hit by extreme turbulence and compelled to land in Thailand, the provider mentioned Tuesday.
Singapore Airways Flight 321 encountered “sudden, extreme turbulence” about 10 hours right into a Singapore-bound flight from London Heathrow, the airline mentioned. The airplane, a Boeing 777-300ER, was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members.
Photographs on social media confirmed surprised passengers, with oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling and meals and different onboard provides strewn on the bottom.
The jet fell into an air pocket over Thai airspace and requested to land at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Kittipong Kittikachorn, normal supervisor of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, informed a information convention, in response to Reuters.
There have been extreme thunderstorms within the space on the time and the “flight encountered a speedy change in vertical fee, in line with a sudden turbulence occasion,” in response to flight-tracking platform Flightradar24.
The deceased particular person is a 73-year-old British nationwide, who doubtless suffered a coronary heart assault, Reuters reported, citing Kittikachorn.
Singapore Airways mentioned 18 individuals had been hospitalized and that 12 had been being handled in hospitals. Different passengers had been handled on the airport, the provider mentioned.
The U.S. Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned it was sending a staff to assist the investigation of its counterparts from Singapore.
The airline mentioned that 131 passengers and 12 crew who had been on the flight arrived in Singapore on a reduction flight at 5:05 a.m., native time, the place they had been met with the corporate’s chief govt.
“On behalf of Singapore Airways, I want to specific my deepest condolences to the household and family members of the deceased passenger,” Singapore Airways’ CEO Goh Choon Phong mentioned in a Fb put up. “We additionally deeply apologise for the trauma skilled by all passengers and crew members on this flight.”
Kittipong Kittikachorn, director of Suvarnabhumi Airport, speaks throughout a information convention on the airport in Bangkok on Could 21, 2024 concerning the emergency touchdown of the Singapore Airways flight SQ321 from London to Singapore.
Lillian Suwanrumpha | Afp | Getty Photographs
Boeing mentioned it was in touch with Singapore Airways concerning the flight and was prepared to supply assist. Singapore acquired the plane in 2008, in response to Flightradar24.
The Aviation Security Community has recorded seven incidents for Singapore Airways, final logging accident fatalities for one of many firm’s flights in October 2000, when 83 individuals had been killed when the airplane crashed into building tools at Tapei’s principal airport.
The inside of Singapore Airline flight SQ321 is pictured after an emergency touchdown at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Worldwide Airport, Thailand, Could 21, 2024.
Reuters
Turbulence-related incidents are the most typical kind of accident suffered by business airways, in response to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. This covers main U.S. airways, in addition to cargo plane and regional carriers.
Extreme accidents from turbulence are uncommon, nonetheless, with 163 cases recorded between 2009 and 2022, 129 of them crew members, in response to the NTSB.
Dozens of accidents had been reported on a Hawaiian Airways flight from Phoenix to Honolulu in December 2022 that encountered extreme turbulence.
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