Every so often we hear of aircraft encountering severe turbulence, leading to injuries. Unfortunately in the case of a recent flight, it ended up being fatal. In the hours following this event, more details are emerging, and the damage to the jet is pretty shocking.
Fatality onboard Singapore Airlines jet
This incident involves a Singapore Airlines flight from London (LHR) to Singapore (SIN), SQ321. The flight was supposed to depart at 10:05PM on Monday, May 20, 2024, and land in Singapore at 6:10PM on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. It was operated by a 16-year-old Boeing 777-300ER with the registration code 9V-SWM, and had a total of 211 passengers and 18 crew onboard.
The jet took off from London last night at 10:38PM, and began its 12+ hour flight to Singapore. The majority of the flight was routine, until a couple of hours before arrival.
The aircraft hit severe turbulence, causing 30 injuries and one fatality. The fatality was a 73-year-old man from the United Kingdom who was traveling in premium economy. It’s believed that he had a heart condition, and may have died of a heart attack. Furthermore, seven people are reportedly in critical condition.
My thoughts are with those who were onboard their flights, as well as their families. How beyond tragic. The level of damage this aircraft suffered is unbelievable. We’re not just talking about personal items being thrown around, but also major damage to panels and more. It’s a reminder of how quickly things can change when flying.
Given the level of damage and injuries in the cabin, the decision was made to divert to Bangkok (BKK), where the plane landed around 3:45PM local time.
Now, I see a lot of media reporting that the jet “plunged” 6,000 feet within minutes. Based on what I can see, the jet descended from 37,000 feet to around 31,000 feet in four minutes. I wouldn’t call a descent rate of 1,500 feet per minute a “plunge,” as that’s a pretty standard descent rate under normal circumstances. That’s not to say that there wasn’t an air pocket that caused a big drop, but it likely wasn’t 6,000 feet.
Here’s how Singapore Airlines describes this incident in a statement:
We can confirm that there are injuries and one fatality on board the Boeing 777-300ER. There were a total of 211 passengers and 18 crew on board. Singapore Airlines offers its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased. Our priority is to provide all possible assistance to all passengers and crew on board the aircraft. We are working with the local authorities in Thailand to provide the necessary medical assistance, and sending a team to Bangkok to provide any additional assistance needed.
Always wear your seat belt!
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. It’s important to do this not just when the seatbelt sign is on, but also when it’s off (assuming you’re seated), since turbulence can happen at any time.
A vast majority of the time, those injured during turbulence are people who don’t have their seatbelts on. If you’re buckled in, your biggest 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.
While severe turbulence causes injuries every so often, it’s exceedingly rare to see a fatality. After all, we sometimes go long stretches without a single inflight fatality from a passenger that’s related to safety (as opposed to someone just dying due to an unrelated condition). As a matter of fact, I think this might be the first safety related fatality onboard a Singapore Airlines flight in… a very long time?
Now, admittedly this fatality may have been due to a heart condition that was triggered by the incident, so perhaps this shouldn’t even count, for those purposes. It doesn’t change the tragedy of this, though.
Bottom line
A Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 encountered severe turbulence several hours ago, while enroute from London to Singapore. While severe turbulence with injuries happens every so often, this was remarkable, as there was a fatality, which we almost never see. On top of that, seven people are in critical condition.
What a terrible situation. Here’s to hoping that the seven people in critical condition are able to recover.
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