Qatar Airways 777 Diverts Due To Severe Turbulence, Injuries

Qatar Airways 777 Diverts Due To Severe Turbulence, Injuries

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This is a good reminder to always keep your seatbelt fastened when seated.

Bali-bound Qatar Airways 777 diverts to Bangkok

A Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER has diverted to Bangkok (BKK) due to a severe turbulence incident. This happened on the May 10, 2023, service of Qatar Airways flight QR960, scheduled to operate from Doha (DOH) to Denpasar (DPS). The aircraft involved in the incident is a 12-year-old jet with the registration code A7-BAN.

Qatar Airways has confirmed that some people onboard sustained injuries, and will be receiving medical treatment in Bangkok. As of now the plane is on the ground in Thailand, and it remains to be seen what happens to the passengers onboard who don’t need medical attention. The airline states that it will share more details about the incident as they become available.

It’s not known at exactly what point in the flight the aircraft encountered severe turbulence, though the plane maintained a (more or less) straight path all the way to Bangkok, so it seems that was directly on the way. Presumably the turbulence happened over the Bay of Bengal, given the lack of diversion points there. The flight ended up spending just under six hours in the air.

Qatar Airways’ diversion to Bangkok

Looking at Flightradar24’s altitude and speed graph for this particular flight, I’m not seeing a significant altitude change, though there is a pretty significant speed change, at around 9:45AM UTC. Of course it’s possible that this is a glitch, and/or doesn’t fully reflect the altitude, since the drop presumably just happened for a brief moment.

Flightradar24 data for this flight

This is a good reminder to always wear your seatbelt

Aviation is an incredibly safe form of transportation, so we often forget the simplest way we can protect ourselves when flying, which is to wear our seatbelts. Often there’s no advance warning of severe turbulence, which is why it’s so important to have your seatbelt sign on even when the flight appears to be smooth.

In severe turbulence incidents, it’s typically those who don’t have their seatbelts on who sustain the worst injuries. If you’re buckled in, your only real risk is another object becoming airborne and hitting you while seated. Meanwhile if you’re not buckled in, you could become that object flying through the cabin.

You never know when severe turbulence could occur, and wearing your seatbelt on a plane isn’t exactly uncomfortable or a huge inconvenience.

Bottom line

A Qatar Airways Boeing 777 headed to Bali had to divert to Bangkok due to injuries onboard from severe turbulence. Details are limited as of now, though I’m sure we’ll get more details on the number of injuries, as well as some pictures and videos from inside the cabin, soon enough.

Always buckle up, as you never know when severe turbulence could occur!

Conversations (11)
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  1. Samantha Guest

    I was on it and it was the worst experience of my life.I was in buisness and lay down asleep i dont remember first drop but partner said he saw me go up twice and hit my head but i remember the second one being in the air and crashing down hitting my head on the side of the seat.My partner went up crashed down that hard the headrest came off and metal exposed he has injured shoulder we will be wearing seatbelts from now on all flight

  2. Auspointer Guest

    “Often there’s no advance warning of severe turbulence, which is why it’s so important to have your seatbelt sign on even when the flight appears to be smooth.”

    I think you may have meant to say “…why it’s so important to keep your seatbelt on…”

  3. Eskimo Guest

    Should have diverted to HKT.
    At least that way the passengers would still end up on a paradise island.

  4. Andy 11235 Guest

    Have to say, BKK is not on the way from DOH to DPS. Flightradar shows the flight typically follows the arc gcmap suggests is best. If the turbulence did hit over the bay of bengal, I'm curious why the flight was already flying so far north of it's typical path. Was there such terrible weather they were already planning to fly so far out of the way?

    1. N1120A Guest

      Might have been wind or airspace reasons.

  5. Ken Guest

    I used to live in Singapore, and I don't recall anytime we didn't experience moderate turbulence flying over the bay of bengal

    1. Patrick Guest

      Oh yessss! And with family in Chennai, it always is a rough ride near the Andamans

    2. Baliken Guest

      Been traveling from SE Asia to North and South America over the Bay of Bengal for decades. It’s a very rare flight where there is only a little turbulence. It’s almost always moderate at least.

  6. Bill Guest

    See no reason why the flight won’t continue on from Bangkok for uninjured passengers unless there is an issue with the equipment. Qatar flies to Bangkok all the time (just did that very flight few days ago) so it’s an airport they are already setup to service

    1. Ben Schlappig OMAAT

      @ Bill -- I figure there are two reasons it might not continue onwards. One is that the crew might time out, and/or there were several injuries among the crew. The other is that the aircraft cabin could be damaged a bit, or at least very dirty, if food and drinks were flying around the cabin.

    2. N1120A Guest

      Severe turbulance requires an inspection after landing. That could be the issue.

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Auspointer Guest

“Often there’s no advance warning of severe turbulence, which is why it’s so important to have your seatbelt sign on even when the flight appears to be smooth.” I think you may have meant to say “…why it’s so important to keep your seatbelt on…”

2
N1120A Guest

Severe turbulance requires an inspection after landing. That could be the issue.

2
N1120A Guest

Might have been wind or airspace reasons.

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