One Person Dies, Dozens Are Injured After International Flight Hits Severe Turbulence
A Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300 ran into severe turbulence on its flight from London to Singapore on Tuesday, resulting in one death and at least 30 injuries.
Flight SQ 321 was diverted to Bangkok after hitting turbulence and landed at 3:45 p.m. local time, the BBC
reported. There were 211 passengers and 18 crew aboard the aircraft. It remains unclear if the person who died was a passenger or part of the crew. Airline tracking data showed that Flight SQ 321 dropped around 6,000 feet after hitting an air pocket, according to
The Guardian.
Singapore Airlines didn’t specify how many people had been injured in the incident, but multiple
outlets have
reported that 30 people were hurt.
Thai authorities and first responders were on the scene after the Singapore Airlines plane landed at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.
Turbulence occurs when an aircraft is hit with “an irregular motion of the air resulting from eddies and vertical currents,” according to the
National Weather Service. Turbulence is common for all commercial flights and can happen anywhere regardless of weather conditions, but it can be “associated with fronts, wind shear, thunderstorms, etc.,” NWS says.