A 73-year-old British man died onboard a Singapore Airlines jet travelling from the UK on Tuesday, Thai officials have confirmed.
What Happened?
After around 11 hours of flying time from take off in London, the aircraft hit an air pocket and sharply dropped 6,000 feet in five minutes, unleashing mayhem in the cabin and forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
Total Number of People Onboard
Of the plane’s 211 passengers and 18 crew, one person was left dead and 23 were injured. Of those, officials said seven suffered critical head injuries.
About the Deceased
Suvarnabhumi airport general manager Kittipong Kittikachorn told a press conference that the deceased was a 73-year-old British man who was travelling with his wife. He likely suffered a heart attack, the official said.
He added that the man’s wife is also in hospital, but that her condition was unknown.
Passengers have described how the plane dropped in mid-air as it encountered extreme turbulence near Myanmar airspace.
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How the Turbulence Went
Passengers have described how they had little warning to put their seatbelts on before the aircraft suddenly dropped, with one passenger saying people were ‘launched into the ceiling’ as the plane fell through the sky.
‘Suddenly the aircraft starts tilting up and there was shaking so I started bracing for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop so everyone seated and not wearing seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling,’ Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board the flight told Reuters.
‘Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it, they hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it,’ he said.
The plane dropped from an altitude of around 37,000 feet to 31,000 feet within just five minutes as it finished traversing the Andaman Sea and neared Thailand.
Ceiling fittings had been ripped apart and the pipework was exposed. Machinery was hanging from the galley where trolleys are stored.
One air stewardess was seen with red marks over her face. Her male colleague could be seen in a chair nearby, looking shocked and dishevelled.
