Air turbulence such as what SQ 321 encountered can create danger in the skies
Turbulence has always been associated to air travel. Most of the time, it involves slightly unnerving spells of bumpiness. We’ve all experienced that. However, the severe episode on board a Singapore Airlines plane on 20th May where a passenger died shows how unsafe turbulence can be. Fortunately, turbulence fatalities on commercial flights are extremely rare. The last known fatality was in December 1997, when a United Airlines flight on its way from Tokyo to Honolulu experienced turbulence that led to the death of a passenger on board.
Here’s what we know about the flight SQ321 incident so far. On May 20th, flight SQ321 departed London Heathrow Airport at 1.38pm, local time. The Boeing 777 – 300 ER aircraft, which was scheduled to land in Singapore after 13 hours of flight time, carried 211 passengers plus a 18 member crew. For the first 10 hours everything was fine. Then, the plane, cruising at 37,000 feet, started tilting upwards, and shaking. “I started bracing for what was happening,” said Dzafran Azmir, a 28 year-old Malaysian student told Reuters. He had his seatbelt on but many others did not. Just a few seconds later, SQ321 suddenly dropped 6,000 feet in the sky.
The drop was dramatic.”Everyone seated and not wearing a seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling.” recalled Azmir. Some hit their heads on baggage cabins overhead and dented it, and objects were flung around the cabin. The fall lasted a short while but the damage was severe according to a passenger. Azimir went on to say “the crew and people inside lavatories were hurt the most, because they discovered people just on the ground unable to get up.”
According to passenger, Andrew Davies “There were a lot of spinal and head injuries. There were many injured people with head lacerations, and bleeding ears.” Another described seeing other passengers giving first-aid or injured passengers screaming in pain. Geoff Kitchen a 73 year old British man, despite been given CPR for 20 minutes, sadly passed away from a heart attack on board.
One of the Singapore Airlines crew said it was by far the worst turbulence she had experienced in her 30 years of flying. Parts of the planes interior was also damaged. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing as it was diverted to to Bangkok where it landed at 3.45pm, local time. 114 passengers including six cabin crew staff were injured with the seriously wounded rushed to the hospital.
Soon after this incident, A Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner encountered severe turbulence while flying over Turkey on its route from Doha to Dublin on May 26, 2024. It resulted in twelve people, including six members of crew getting injured. Fortunately, the plane landed safely in Dublin..
What is turbulence and what causes it?
There are four main levels of turbulence - light, moderate, severe and extreme. In cases of light and moderate turbulence, passengers might feel a strain against their seatbelt, and unsecure items in the cabin may move around. According to the National Weather Service, severe turbulence is defined as “large and abrupt changes in altitude" usually accompanied by large variations in indicated airspeed that may cause an airplane to be “momentarily out of control.” Meanwhile, extreme turbulence is classified as when an “airplane is tossed violently about and is impossible to control,” potentially causing structural damage to the aircraft.
Turbulence on flights can be caused by storms, mountains, and strong air currents called jet streams or clear-air turbulence. The issue with clear air turbulence is that it can be difficult to avoid because it doesn’t show up on the weather radar in the flight deck. it can come out of nowhere, so you can be thrown while walking around the plane.
This is why the best advice is to keep your seat belt on during the whole ride or as much as possible.
Source: External
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