Australians have begun returning home from a fatal Singapore Airlines flight where passengers were thrown around the plane’s cabin during a severe bout of turbulence.
The flight from London had dozens of Australian citizens on board when it was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
Relieved passengers returned to Sydney Airport on Wednesday night, with one woman describing the emotional toll of the ordeal.
“When it happened I was really calm. It wasn’t until I got off the plane and sat in that room, since then I can’t stop crying,” Beverley Mayers told Nine News.
Speaking from Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital in Thailand with her arm in a sling, Teandra Tukhumen said she was flung from her seat before she could comply with the crew’s seatbelt sign direction.
“I was asleep and then I was woken up because I was thrown to the roof and then the floor,” she told Sky News UK.
“It was just so quick. They had no warning whatsoever.
“The pilot saved our lives. We’re alive, so that’s all that matters in the end.”
Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 hit “sudden extreme turbulence” over Myanmar about 10 hours into its journey on Tuesday, abruptly rising and plunging several times.
The plane, carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew, made an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where medical staff used gurneys to ferry the injured to ambulances waiting on the tarmac.
A 73-year-old British man died, while Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital said late on Tuesday that 71 people had been sent for treatment — six of them seriously injured.
The airport in the Thai capital said 83 passengers and crew were hurt.
There were 56 Australians on board — the largest group — of which eight were hospitalised.
Goh Choon Phong, the CEO of Singapore Airlines, expressed his “deepest condolences” to the family of the deceased in a video message on Wednesday.
“We are very sorry for the traumatic experience that everyone on board SQ321 went through,” he said.
A relief flight carrying 131 passengers and 12 crew landed at Singapore’s Changi Airport on Wednesday morning.
The sudden turbulence occurred about 10 hours into the flight. Source: Getty / Anadolu
Goh said 79 passengers and six crew members were still in Bangkok.
“This includes the injured who are receiving medical treatment, as well as their families and loved ones who were on the flight,” he said.
‘Crazy flight’: SQ321 passengers recount onboard horror
The flight from London bound for Singapore fell into an air pocket while cabin crew were serving breakfast before it encountered turbulence, prompting the pilots to request an emergency landing, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport general manager Kittipong Kittikachorn told a press conference.
Photos from inside the plane show the cabin in chaos, strewn with food, drinks bottles and luggage, and with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
Andrew Davies, a British passenger aboard the Boeing 777-300ER, told BBC radio that the plane “suddenly dropped” and there was “very little warning”.
“During the few seconds of the plane dropping, there was an awful screaming and what sounded like a thud,” he said, adding that he helped a woman who was “screaming in agony” with a “gash on her head”.
Separately, he told a BBC podcast he feared the plane was going to crash.
“Remembering the plane now — the huge dents in the roof that people had obviously hit with their head. There was a water bottle stuck in a gap in the ceiling,” he said.
During the few seconds of the plane dropping, there was an awful screaming and what sounded like a thud.
British passenger Andrew Davies
Allison Barker told the BBC her son Josh, who was aboard the plane, texted her that he was on “a crazy flight” that was making an emergency landing.
“It was terrifying,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t know whether he’d survived, it was so nerve-racking. It was the longest two hours of my life.”
Another passenger said some people’s heads had slammed into the lights above the seats and punctured the panels.
“I saw people from across the aisle going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and landing back down in like really awkward positions. People, like, getting massive gashes in the head, concussions,” Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student who was on the flight, told the Reuters news agency.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said her thoughts were with those affected by the incident.
“The Australian government will provide consular assistance wherever we can, wherever it’s needed to those people,” O’Neil told Seven’s Sunrise program on Wednesday.
The plane made an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport after experiencing turbulence, the airport’s general manager, Kittipong Kittikachorn, said. Source: AAP / Rungroj Yungrit
How safe are Singapore Airlines flights?
Singapore Airlines, which is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading airlines and is a benchmark for much of the industry, has not had any major incidents in recent years.
Its last accident resulting in casualties was a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei, where it crashed on 31 October 2000 into construction equipment at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after attempting to take off from the wrong runway.
The crash killed 83 of the 179 people on board.
Singapore Airlines has had seven accidents according to records by the Aviation Safety Network.
Boeing said it was in touch with Singapore Airlines and was ready to provide support.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family who lost a loved one, and our thoughts are with the passengers and crew,” it said
