A 73-year-old British man was killed and 30 people were injured during turbulence that caused a 6,000-ft (1.8 km) drop mid-flight on a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore. Of those injured, seven are in critical condition. There were a total of 211 passengers on the plane that departed from Heathrow airport Monday at 22:17 pm local time, including two Canadians, and 18 crew. The passenger killed by the turbulence has been identified as Geoffrey Kitchen, a musical theatre director from Gloucestershire. Kitchen was travelling with his wife, Linda, who was injured during the incident. Boeing 777 flight SQ321, after 11 hours of flying time ,while breakfast was being served reportedly fell into an “air pocket” and dropped for five straight minutes, “launching people” who weren’t wearing seatbelts “straight to the ceiling,” one passenger recounted per the Daily Mail. The plane went from cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet to suddenly dropping to 31,000 feet when it hit the severe patch of turbulence, which is usually caused when an aircraft “hits a strong wind current that can push or pull the plane,” according to Sheffield School of Aeronautics. Photographs show a flight attendant with blood on her face, a person being carried away in a stretcher, and medical aid treating alit passengers on the tarmac. Oxygen masks were released, objects strewn everywhere, ceiling fittings were torn apart exposing the pipework underneath, and machinery was hanging from the galley kitchen. Mayhem ensued inside the plane as the aircraft plummeted, and the pilot made an emergency landing at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand, where the plane was met on the tarmac by emergency vehicles. Other passengers reported people “screaming in pain” and experiencing “bleeding ears” as the flight suffered severe turbulence and powerful tropical thunderstorms over the area of Myanmar. .Suvarnabhumi airport official Kittipong Kittikachorn said at a press conference following the emergency landing Kitchen's death was likely due to a heart attack. “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,” 28-year-old passenger Dzafran Azmir 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. .Another passenger, Andrew Davies, said he sat with other uninjured travelers in a holding area at the airport. “Lots of people injured — including the air stewards who were stoic and did everything they could,” said Davies per the Mail. “Bangkok emergency services (were) quick to respond. Very little warning. The seat-belt sign came on, I put on my seat-belt straight away then the plane just dropped.”He said fellow passengers tried top perform “CPR on the poor gentleman that passed.”“People's belongings scattered, coffee and water splattered the ceiling. Surreal. So many injured people. Head lacerations, bleeding ears. A lady was screaming in pain with a bad back. I couldn't help her - just got her water.”
A 73-year-old British man was killed and 30 people were injured during turbulence that caused a 6,000-ft (1.8 km) drop mid-flight on a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore. Of those injured, seven are in critical condition. There were a total of 211 passengers on the plane that departed from Heathrow airport Monday at 22:17 pm local time, including two Canadians, and 18 crew. The passenger killed by the turbulence has been identified as Geoffrey Kitchen, a musical theatre director from Gloucestershire. Kitchen was travelling with his wife, Linda, who was injured during the incident. Boeing 777 flight SQ321, after 11 hours of flying time ,while breakfast was being served reportedly fell into an “air pocket” and dropped for five straight minutes, “launching people” who weren’t wearing seatbelts “straight to the ceiling,” one passenger recounted per the Daily Mail. The plane went from cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet to suddenly dropping to 31,000 feet when it hit the severe patch of turbulence, which is usually caused when an aircraft “hits a strong wind current that can push or pull the plane,” according to Sheffield School of Aeronautics. Photographs show a flight attendant with blood on her face, a person being carried away in a stretcher, and medical aid treating alit passengers on the tarmac. Oxygen masks were released, objects strewn everywhere, ceiling fittings were torn apart exposing the pipework underneath, and machinery was hanging from the galley kitchen. Mayhem ensued inside the plane as the aircraft plummeted, and the pilot made an emergency landing at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand, where the plane was met on the tarmac by emergency vehicles. Other passengers reported people “screaming in pain” and experiencing “bleeding ears” as the flight suffered severe turbulence and powerful tropical thunderstorms over the area of Myanmar. .Suvarnabhumi airport official Kittipong Kittikachorn said at a press conference following the emergency landing Kitchen's death was likely due to a heart attack. “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,” 28-year-old passenger Dzafran Azmir 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. .Another passenger, Andrew Davies, said he sat with other uninjured travelers in a holding area at the airport. “Lots of people injured — including the air stewards who were stoic and did everything they could,” said Davies per the Mail. “Bangkok emergency services (were) quick to respond. Very little warning. The seat-belt sign came on, I put on my seat-belt straight away then the plane just dropped.”He said fellow passengers tried top perform “CPR on the poor gentleman that passed.”“People's belongings scattered, coffee and water splattered the ceiling. Surreal. So many injured people. Head lacerations, bleeding ears. A lady was screaming in pain with a bad back. I couldn't help her - just got her water.”
