Severe turbulence on Singapore Airlines Flight 321 from London left one dead and others injured, airline says

Singapore Airlines said on Tuesday that one person was killed and others injured when a flight from London to Singapore was hit by severe turbulence. Flight SQ321 from London’s Heathrow Airport was diverted to Bangkok and landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport just before 4pm local time on Tuesday, the airline said in a statement on its Facebook page.

“We can confirm that there were injuries and one death on board the Boeing 777-300ER,” the statement said, adding that there were 211 passengers and 18 crew members on the plane. CBS News partner network BBC News later reported that the fatality was a male British passenger aged about 70 who suffered a heart attack during the turbulence, but neither the airline nor Thai officials immediately confirmed these details.

The airline did not say how many were injured, but Thai media said first responders treated about 30 people. Video from Suvarnabhumi Airport showed passengers climbing a ramp onto the tarmac from the plane, which was surrounded by emergency vehicles.

Several people could be seen lying on a tarp under a tent in a triage area packed with airport and medical personnel.

The airline expressed “its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased” and said it was providing assistance to all passengers and crew on the flight.

Boeing extended its condolences to the family of the passenger who died in a statement on social media, saying it was in contact with Singapore Airlines and stood ready to support the airline in its investigation into the incident.

Tracking data from the FlightAware website showed that the Singapore Airlines plane suddenly dropped from an altitude of about 37,000 feet to 31,000 feet in just about five minutes. The descent occurred about 11 hours into the flight from London, when the Boeing had finished crossing the Andaman Sea and was approaching the Thai coast.

“Suddenly the plane started tilting upwards and it started shaking, so I started bracing myself for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop, so anyone who was sitting and not wearing a seatbelt was immediately thrown into the ceiling launched,” said passenger Dzafran Azmir. the Reuters news agency. “Some people hit their heads on the overhead baggage cabins and made a dent in them. They hit the places where lamps and masks hang and broke right through them.”

Although in-flight turbulence is becoming increasingly common on many routes, fatalities and serious injuries are rare. Four people were injured due to severe turbulence on a domestic US flight in Florida in July 2023.

Climatologists have done that warned travelers to brace themselves for more flight delays and cancellations and more frequent and severe turbulence, especially on routes across the world’s rapidly warming oceans, due to climate change.