Passengers gave new details about the moments of terror they experienced after Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 encountered “sudden severe turbulence” over Myanmar, ten hours after it took off from London, heading to Singapore on Tuesday, and it rose and fell several times within moments.
20 people were undergoing treatment in intensive care units in Bangkok hospitals, on Wednesday, after the accident in which an elderly passenger died and led to more than 100 others being injured.
One of the passengers said that people were thrown around the plane so violently that they left marks on the ceiling during the incident, which occurred at an altitude of 11,300 meters, and dozens of people suffered head injuries.
Pictures from inside the plane showed the cabin in chaos, with food, drink bottles, and luggage scattered, and oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.
The plane, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members, was forced to make an emergency landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, where the injured were transferred on stretchers to ambulances that were waiting for them on the runway.
One of the passengers told Australian media, on Wednesday, after arriving in Sydney, “I was thrown to the ceiling and then the plane fell forward and I fell as well… Then it fell to the ground hard and all the breakfast equipment and bottles fell. The crew members were preparing breakfast for everyone, so it was “Their injuries are the worst.”
A 73-year-old Briton was killed and 104 people were injured.
A hospital in Bangkok reported that its employees are treating, or have treated, 85 of the injured, including 20 people in the intensive care unit.
The 20 people are from Australia, Britain, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Philippines, according to Samitivej Hospital, without specifying the number of passengers or crew members.
A relief flight carrying 131 passengers and 12 crew members landed at Changi Airport in Singapore on Wednesday morning.
The relatives welcomed the arrivals with hugs, but they were all in a state of shock that prevented them from speaking to journalists.
Andrew Davies, a British passenger who was on the plane, told BBC Radio that the plane “suddenly went down” and they received “very little warning.”
He explained, “During the few seconds after the plane went down, we heard a horrific scream and what sounded like a noise,” noting that he helped a woman who was “screaming for help” and had an “injury to her head.”
He said in a BBC radio podcast that he thought the plane was going to crash.
For his part, Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Fong said on Wednesday that the company “deeply regrets the shocking experience” experienced by the people on board the flight and offered its condolences to the family of the deceased.
“Crazy trip”
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong offered his “deepest condolences” to the family of deceased passenger Jeff Kitchen, a theater manager near Bristol.
Singapore has sent a team of investigators to Bangkok, and Wong confirmed on Facebook that his country is “working closely with Thai authorities.”
The passengers are 56 Australians, 47 Britons and 41 Singaporeans, according to the airline.
The Malaysian Foreign Ministry stated that nine of its citizens were taken to hospital, one of whom was in serious but stable condition.
An Agence France-Presse photographer saw people wearing yellow Singapore Airlines jackets entering the plane on Wednesday while it remained parked in Bangkok.
US-based aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse told AFP, “It is still too early to determine exactly what happened. But I think passengers are behaving very relaxed on commercial aircraft. The moment the pilot turns off the fasten seat belt signal, people immediately remove them.”
Passenger Davis said that “the plane suddenly plunged” and at the same moment the fasten seat belt light came on.
Alison Parker told BBC News that her son Josh, who was on the flight, sent her a text message in which he informed her that he was on a “crazy flight” making an emergency landing.
“It was horrific,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t know if he survived. It was nerve-wracking. It was the longest two hours of my life.”
Scientists have long warned that climate change will likely lead to increased turbulence in clear skies, something that radars cannot pick up.
A study from 2023 concluded that the annual duration of clear-sky turbulence increased by 17 percent from 1979 to 2020, with the most severe cases increasing by more than 50 percent.
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