Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong issued a statement where he apologised to passengers that underwent a traumatic experience as its Flight SQ321 was flying from London’s Heathrow airport to Singapore, with 211 passengers and 18 crew members aboard, when it hit turbulence Tuesday, bashing people around inside the plane.
“We are very sorry for the traumatic experience that everyone on board SQ321 went through," Goh said in a video on social media. He said the airline was providing all necessary support and pledged it would fully cooperate in investigations.
The Boeing 777 descended 6,000 feet (around 1,800 metres) in about three minutes, Singapore Airlines said in a statement Tuesday.
FlightRadar24 citing tracking data showed that the flight was initially cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,300 metres), but at one point the Boeing 777-300ER suddenly and sharply descended to 31,000 feet (9,400 metres) over about three minutes. The aircraft then remained at 31,000 feet (9,400 metres) for under 10 minutes before diverting and landing in Bangkok less than a half-hour later.
The Boeing 777, a wide-body passenger aircraft, has been described as a workhorse of the aviation industry. Carriers across the globe use it mainly for long-haul flights by airlines around the world. The newer variant 777-300ER of the twin engine, two-aisle plane is larger and can carry more passengers than earlier models.
Singapore Airlines, the city-state’s flag carrier, operates 22 of the aircraft as part of its fleet of more than 140 planes.
An airport official said the 73-year-old British man who died might have had a heart attack. The real reason for the death has not yet been identified.
Officials in Thailand have not released the man’s name, but British media outlets identified him as Geoff Kitchen. Kitchen was going on a holiday with his wife. She was among the passengers taken to hospital in Bangkok.
The flight was battered by severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean and made an emergency landing in Bangkok with dozens of passengers injured. Around 71 flyers were injured.
The airline’s CEO, Goh Choon Phong, said an additional 79 passengers and six crew members remained in Bangkok, including the 71 hospitalised as of Wednesday morning. Singapore Airlines said a relief plane flew into Singapore early Wednesday morning with most of the passengers who were on the flight.
British passenger Andrew Davies told Sky News that the seatbelt sign was illuminated but crew members didn’t have enough time to return to their seats.
“Every single cabin crew person I saw was injured in some way or another, maybe with a gash on their head. One had a bad back, who was in obvious pain," Davies said.
Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on the flight, told ABC News: “Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it. They hit the places where lights and masks were and broke straight through it."
Kittipong Kittikachorn, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, said the sudden fall occurred when passengers were being served food and at least seven passengers were severely injured.
Singapore Airlines said the nationalities of the passengers were 56 Australians, two Canadians, one German, three Indians, two Indonesians, one Icelander, four Irish, one Israeli, 16 Malaysians, two from Myanmar, 23 New Zealanders, five Filipinos, 41 from Singapore, one South Korean, two Spaniards, 47 from the United Kingdom and four from the United States.
Boeing extended condolences to the family of the dead man and said it was in contact with Singapore Airlines “and stand ready to support them".
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