One dead, several injured after London-Singapore flight hit severe turbulence

A Singapore Airlines flight hit severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean and descended 6000 feet around 1800 meters in a span of about three minutes the carrier said Tuesday leaving a British man dead and more than two dozen other passengers injuredThe flight was then diverted and landed in stormy weather in BangkokAuthorities said the 73yearold British man may have suffered a heart attack though that hasnt been confirmed His name wasnt immediately releasedThe Boeing 777 flight from Londons Heathrow airport to Singapore with 211 passengers and 18 crew members aboard landed at Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport the airline said in a Facebook postBritish passenger Andrew Davies told Sky News that iquestanyone who had a seatbelt on isnt injuredHe said that the seatbelt sign was illuminated but crew members didnt have time to take their seatsEvery single cabin crew person I saw was injured in some way or another maybe with a gash on their head Davies said One had a bad back who was in obvious painEmergency medical crews rushed to help the passengers Videos posted on the LINE messaging platform by Suvarnabhumi Airport showed a line of ambulances streaming to the sceneKittipong Kittikachorn general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport told a news conference on Tuesday night that the British man appeared to have suffered a heart attack but medical authorities would need to confirm thatHe said that seven passengers were severely injured and 23 passengers and nine crew members had what he described as moderate injuries Sixteen other people with less serious injuries received hospital treatment while another 14 were treated at the airport according to KittipongKittipong said the sudden descent happened as passengers were being served their food It was Suvarnabhumi Airports first time handling a midair turbulence related death he addedThai airport authorities said that the passengers with minor injures and those who are not injured are being assisted at a specially assigned location inside the airport terminalThailands transport minister Suriya Jungrungruangkit said Singapore was dispatching another plane to transport those who could travel to the citystates Changi airportTracking data captured by FlightRadar24 and analyzed by The Associated Press show the Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 cruising at an altitude of 37000 feet 11300 metersAt one point the Boeing 777300ER suddenly and sharply descends to 31000 feet 9400 meters over the span of about three minutes according to the data The aircraft then stayed at 31000 feet 9400 meters for under 10 minutes before diverting and landing in Bangkok less than a halfhour laterThe sharp descent in turbulence happened as the flight was over the Andaman Sea near Myanmar The aircraft sent a squawk code of 7700 at that time an international emergency signalDetails of the weather at the time werent immediately revealedMost people associate turbulence with heavy storms But the most dangerous type is socalled clear air turbulence Wind shear can occur in wispy cirrus clouds or even in clear air near thunderstorms as differences in temperature and pressure create powerful currents of fastmoving airThe problem of turbulence was highlighted last December when a total of 41 people on two separate flights hit by turbulence in the United States were hurt or received medical treatment on two consecutive daysAccording to a 2021 report by the US National Transportation Safety Board turbulence accounted for 37637 of all accidents on larger commercial airlines between 2009 and 2018 The Federal Aviation Administration another US government agency said after the December incidents that there were 146 serious injuries from turbulence from 2009 to 2021Boeing the maker of the Singapore Airlines plane that ran into turbulence extended condolences to the family of the dead man and said it was in contact with Singapore Airlines regarding flight SQ321 and stand ready to support themThe widebody Boeing 777 is a workhorse of the aviation industry used mainly for longhaul flights by airlines around the worldThe 777300ER variant of the twinengine twoaisle plane is larger and can carry more passengers than earlier modelsSingapore Airlines the citystates flag carrier operates 22 of the aircraft as part of its fleet of more than 140 planes The airlines parent company is majority owned by Singapores Temasek government investment conglomerate and also operates the budget airline ScootSingapore Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat also extended condolences on his Facebook page He said that his ministry and Singapores Foreign Ministry as well as the countrys Civil Aviation Authority and Changi Airport officials along with airline staff are providing support to the affected passengers and their familiesThe Transport Safety Investigation Bureau of the ministry said that its investigating the incident and is in touch with its Thai counterpart and will be deploying investigators to BangkokSingapore Airlines said that the nationalities of the passengers are 56 Australians two Canadians one German three Indians two Indonesians one from Iceland four from Ireland one Israeli 16 Malaysians two from Myanmar 23 from New Zealand five Filipinos 41 from Singapore one South Korean two Spaniards 47 from the United Kingdom and four from the United StatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever