A 73-year-old British man has died and dozens more have been injured, seven of those critically, after a flight from London to Singapore suffered a period of extreme turbulence.
The flight - a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 - had left the UK just after 10pm on Monday night, but en route to its South-East Asian destination, it experienced a period of severe turbulence as it flew through tropical thunderstorms.
The plane was then forced to make an emergency landing at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, hours before it was due to land in Singapore.
Singapore Airlines has confirmed that 18 individuals have been hospitalised, with another 12 "being treated in hospitals".
The airline said: "The remaining passengers and crew are being examined and given treatment, where necessary, at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok."
While Kittipong Kittikachorn, Director of Suvarnabhumi airport, told a press conference a 73-year-old British man died during the incident, likely due to a heart attack, while head injuries were sustained among seven people critically injured.
Footage from inside the grounded flight showed passengers being stretchered out
Reuters
Passengers and crew were given treatment on the ground, while a stretcher was seen being led across the tarmac by paramedics
Reuters
It was not immediately possible to reconstruct the incident from publicly available tracking data, but a spokesperson for air tracking service FlightRadar24 said it was analysing data at around 7.49am GMT which shows the plane tilting upwards and return to its cruising altitude over the space of a minute.
Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board the flight, said: "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 a seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling.
"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."
A Singapore Airlines statement read: "Singapore Airlines flight SQ321, operating from London Heathrow to Singapore on May 20, 2024, encountered severe turbulence en route.
"The aircraft diverted to Bangkok and landed at 3.45pm local time on May 21, 2024.
"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.
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Officials confirmed that one man died in the shock turbulence incident
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Authorities were present on the tarmac in Bangkok
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The flight stopped hundreds of miles short of its intended destination at Singapore's Changi airport
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The inside of the vessel was left damaged by the turbulence
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Oxygen masks had dropped as the flight wrestled with turbulence
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Singapore Airlines took to social media to release this statement after the incident
Facebook/X
"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."
Images have circulated online of belongings and food strewn across the plane's cabin, as well as ambulances on the tarmac.
The Boeing plane was pictured at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport after the emergency landing
Pongsak Suksi/Handout via Reuters
Singapore Airlines flight #SQ321 encountered extreme air turbulence early today, above the E Indian Ocean, while on route from London to Singapore. Weather here is very disturbed currently. Unusually warm sea temps and developing low pressure is producing widespread thunderstorms pic.twitter.com/Y1zy5tZv3p
— wxcharts - a MetDesk Company (@wxcharts) May 21, 2024
Meteorologists MetDesk posted weather maps of the area at the time, describing conditions as "very disturbed" as low pressure produced "widespread thunderstorms".
The news comes just days after another Boeing aircraft - this time, a 747 in Indonesia, was forced into making an emergency landing after one of its engines burst into flames during take-off.
That flight was taking 468 passengers from Makassar on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to Medina in Saudi Arabia - none of whom were injured.
The incident had forced pilots into bringing the plane back into land, before all on board were safely evacuated.
After 90 minutes of flying in a holding pattern off the coast of Sulawesi, the plane was able to land safely at its airport of origin.
Singapore Airlines has confirmed there were a total of 211 passengers and 18 crew on board.
The nationalities of the passengers are as follows: 56 from Australia, two from Canada, one from Germany, three from India, two from Indonesia, one from Iceland, four from Ireland, one from Israel, 16 from Malaysia, two from Myanmar, 23 from New Zealand, five from the Philippines, 41 from Singapore, one from South Korea, two from Spain, 47 from the United Kingdom, and four from the United States of America.
