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Singapore Airlines flight hits extreme turbulence, one guest dead, seven critically injured

One traveler was killed and 30 hurt after a Singapore Airlines flight from London hit serious turbulence en path on Tuesday, requiring it to make an emergency situation landing in Bangkok, authorities and the airline company said.

Singapore Airlines offers its deepest acknowledgements to the household of the deceased. We deeply apologise for the distressing experience that our guests and crew members suffered on this flight, the airline company stated, adding it was working with Thai authorities to provide all essential help.

The flight fell under an air pocket while cabin team was serving breakfast before it came across turbulence, prompting the pilots to request an emergency situation landing, Suvarnabhumi airport basic manager Kittipong Kittikachorn informed an interview.

A 73-year-old British man passed away during the incident, likely due to a cardiovascular disease, he said. Seven people were critically hurt with head injuries.

Eighteen people have actually been hospitalised and 12 are being dealt with in health centers, Singapore Airlines said.

It was not instantly possible to reconstruct the occurrence from publicly available tracking data, but a representative for FlightRadar 24 said it was evaluating information at around 07:49 GMT which reveals the plane tilting upwards and go back to its cruising elevation over the area of a minute.

A guest who was on the flight informed that the occurrence involved the experience of increasing then falling.

Unexpectedly the aircraft starts tilting up and there was shaking so I started bracing for what was occurring, and extremely all of a sudden there was an extremely significant drop so everybody seated and not using a seat belt was introduced instantly into the ceiling, Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board the flight told .

Some people strike their heads on the luggage cabins overhead and dented it, they struck the locations where lights and masks are and broke straight through it, he stated.

Kittikachorn stated most of the guests he had actually talked to had been wearing their seatbelts.

The representative for FlightRadar 24 stated with regard to data showing a drop in height, our initial thinking is the turbulence occasion is prior to the basic descent from 37,000 to 31,000 feet. That appears to just be a flight level modification in preparation for landing.

The Boeing 777-300ER airplane with 211 guests and 18 team was headed to Singapore when it made the emergency landing, the airline company said.

Singapore news outlet CNA brought blurred pictures provided by readers that it stated appeared to be from the flight. They showed anxious passengers clinging to seats, with oxygen masks hanging from above, personal products scattered throughout the aisle and rubbish spilled on the floor of the cabin crew location.

Suvarnabhumi airport stated the aircraft requested an emergency situation landing at 3:35 pm local time and landed at 3:51. Unimpaired passengers disembarked and an another airplane will fly them onwards. The airline stated it landed at 3:45.

TURBULENCE

Turbulence-related airline accidents are the most common type, according to a 2021 research study by the National Transportation Safety Board.

From 2009 through 2018, the U.S. company discovered that turbulence accounted for more than a third of reported airline accidents and a lot of led to several major injuries, however no airplane damage.

Singapore Airlines, which is widely acknowledged as one of world's leading airline companies and is a criteria for much of the industry, has not had any major events over the last few years.

Its last accident resulting in casualties was a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei, where it crashed on Oct. 31, 2000 into construction devices on the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after trying to take off from the wrong runway. The crash killed 83 of the 179 individuals on board.

Singapore Airlines has actually had seven accidents according to records by the Air travel Security Network.

Boeing stated it was in touch with Singapore Airlines and was all set to offer support. It referred more questions to the airline and local authorities.

We extend our inmost acknowledgements to the family who lost a. enjoyed one, and our thoughts are with the travelers and crew,. it said.

(source: Reuters)