BANGKOK (AP) — Singapore Airlines said a relief plane flew to Singapore on Wednesday morning with most of the passengers who were on a flight that was hit by severe turbulence in the Indian Ocean and had to make an emergency landing. in Bangkok after a man died. and dozens of people were injured.
The airline said 143 passengers arrived in the city-state shortly after 5am.
The airline’s CEO, Goh Choon Phong, said a further 79 passengers and six crew remained in Bangkok, including the 71 hospitalized as of Wednesday morning. The airline told the Associated Press that a second relief flight was planned.
The airline’s flight SQ321 was flying from London’s Heathrow Airport to Singapore with 211 passengers and 18 crew on board when it hit turbulence on Tuesday, hitting people inside the plane. The Boeing 777 descended 6,000 feet (about 1,800 meters) in about three minutes, the carrier said Tuesday.
“We are very sorry for the traumatic experience that everyone on board SQ321 went through,” Goh said in a video on social media. He said the airline was providing all necessary support and promised it would cooperate fully in the investigations.
An airport official said the 73-year-old Briton who died may have suffered a heart attack, although this has not been confirmed.
Thai authorities have not released the man’s name, but British media identified him as Geoff Kitchen, who was going on holiday with his wife. She was among the passengers taken to hospital in Bangkok
Kitchen was described as having previously worked in the insurance industry and in retirement continuing his involvement in amateur theater.
The Thornbury Musical Theater Group, with which he worked, said he “was always a gentleman with the utmost honesty and integrity and always did what was right for the group.”
Passengers arriving at Singapore Changi Airport on Wednesday were greeted by Goh and his family, some with tears of joy and relief. They were escorted out and did not speak to the media.
Officials from the British and Malaysian embassies in Bangkok visited Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital on Wednesday to check on the injured. British authorities were taken to the ninth floor, which houses the hospital’s intensive care unit, along with pediatric surgery and bone marrow transplant wards. Hospital officials said 61 of the injured were being treated there and 10 were transferred to other hospitals in the network.
Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry said nine Malaysian citizens, including a crew member, were being treated at Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital and three at Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital. “According to both hospitals, everyone suffered physical and internal injuries, with one person in critical but stable condition,” it said in a statement.
Reporting the accident, British passenger Andrew Davies told Sky News that the seat belt sign was on but crew members did not have time to take their seats.
“Every cabin crew member I saw was injured in one way or another, perhaps with a cut to the head,” Davies said. “One of them had back problems and was in obvious pain.”
Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student who was on the flight, told ABC News: “Some people hit their heads on the luggage compartments and dented them. They hit the places where the lights and masks were and went right through them.”
Kittipong Kittikachorn, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, said the sudden descent occurred while passengers were receiving food. He said at least seven passengers were seriously injured. The Briton appeared to have had a heart attack, but medical authorities would need to confirm this, he said.
Tracking data captured by FlightRadar24 and analyzed by the Associated Press shows Singapore Airlines Flight SQ321 cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,300 meters).
At one point, the Boeing 777-300ER suddenly and sharply descended to 31,000 feet (9,400 meters) for about three minutes, according to the data. The aircraft then remained at 31,000 feet (9,400 meters) for less than 10 minutes before diverting and landing in Bangkok less than half an hour later.
Most people associate turbulence with strong thunderstorms, but the most dangerous type is called clear air turbulence. Wind shear can occur in thin cirrus clouds or even in clear air near thunderstorms, as differences in temperature and pressure create powerful, fast-moving air currents.
According to a 2021 report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, turbulence was responsible for 37.6% of all accidents on major commercial airlines between 2009 and 2018. The Federal Aviation Administration, another US government agency US said there were 146 serious injuries caused by the turbulence. 2009 to 2021.
Boeing offered condolences to the family of the deceased and said it was in contact with Singapore Airlines “and stands ready to support them.”
The wide-body Boeing 777 is a workhorse of the aviation industry, mainly used for long-haul flights by airlines around the world. The 777-300ER variant of the twin-engine, twin-aisle plane is larger and can carry more passengers than previous models.
Singapore Airlines, the city-state’s flag carrier, operates 22 aircraft as part of its fleet of over 140 planes. The airline’s parent company is majority-owned by Singapore government investment conglomerate Temasek and also operates budget airline Scoot.
Singapore Airlines said the nationalities of the passengers were 56 Australians, two Canadians, one German, three Indians, two Indonesians, one Icelander, four Irish, one Israeli, 16 Malaysians, two from Myanmar, 23 New Zealanders, five Filipinos, 41 from Singapore . , one South Korean, two Spaniards, 47 from the United Kingdom and four from the United States.
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Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
