Singapore Airlines has tightened seat belt rules on flights after a passenger plane encountered severe turbulence, killing one passenger and injuring more than 100 people.
Passengers and crew members on flight SQ321 suffered injuries to their skulls, brains and spines after they were violently thrown around the cabin during Tuesday’s horrific high-altitude test. Some passengers said the turbulence occurred so quickly that they had no time to fasten their seat belts.
The flight from London to Singapore, carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members, was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok. At least 48 people are still being treated in hospital.
In response, Singapore Airlines said it had taken a “more cautious approach” to turbulence.
“In addition to hot beverage service being suspended when the seat belt sign is illuminated, meal service will also be suspended,” the airline said in a statement to AFP. “SIA will continue to review our processes as passengers and crew members Safety is paramount.”
Investigators from Singapore and the United States have traveled to Thailand to investigate the cause of Tuesday’s incident.
Aviation safety experts told AFP that passengers often fasten their seat belts too casually, putting them at risk if the plane encounters unexpected turbulence. Scientists also say so-called clear-air turbulence, which is invisible to radar, is getting worse because of the climate crisis.
The director of Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, which treats most of the injured, said his staff had never before treated such serious injuries caused by turbulence.
Australian passenger Keith Davis described the harrowing experience, which left his wife Kerry with severe spinal injuries and loss of feeling from the waist down.
“It was an absolute carnage, happening all at once. It was absolutely surreal. You know, there was no warning,” he told ABC Channel 9. “Before we knew it, we were at the ceiling. And then boom, we were on the floor. And you don’t know what happened.
Davis said his wife hit the overhead locker door and fell to the aisle floor, unable to move for the remainder of the flight.
Emergency crews used gurneys to transfer injured passengers to waiting ambulances as the plane landed at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Photos taken from inside the plane after it landed in Bangkok showed chaos inside the cabin, with food, drinks and luggage strewn about and oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.
Singapore Airlines chief executive Goh Choon Phong apologized for the “painful experience” and expressed condolences to the family of Geoffrey Kitchen, a 73-year-old British man who died.
