Twenty people who traveled on board the Singapore Airlines flight, which experienced turbulence before an emergency landing in Bangkok on Tuesday, are in intensive care in hospitals in the Thai capital, the establishments announced on Wednesday, May 22.
The patients – from Australia, Britain, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Philippines – were in the intensive care units of Samitivej Srinakarin and Samitivej Sukhumvit hospitals.
According to a statement from the Philippine Department of Labor, a Filipino passenger, an IT engineer working in Singapore, suffered a broken neck and her condition has been judged ” sensitive “ but stable by doctors. Malaysia said nine of its nationals were hospitalized, including one in critical but stable condition.
Singapore Airlines Flight SQ321, carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members, experienced extreme and sudden turbulence at 11,000 meters over Myanmar ten hours after takeoff, rising suddenly and plunging several times .
A 73-year-old British passenger died on board the London-Singapore plane and 104 other people on board were injured. On Wednesday, 131 passengers and 12 crew members, a majority of those on the plane, were finally able to land in Singapore via another flight.
“Very few warnings”
Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong expressed his condolences to the family of the deceased and said “truly sorry for the traumatic experience” experienced by those on board, in a video message.
“It is too early to know exactly what happened. But I think passengers generally lack precautionsAnthony Brickhouse, American aviation security expert, told Agence France-Presse. As soon as the signal goes out, most of them immediately unfasten their seat belts. »
Andrew Davies, a British passenger on board, told BBC Radio 5 that the plane had “suddenly dropped” when the seat belt signal had just come on and there had been “very little warning”.
According to a study carried out in 2023, the annual duration of turbulence increased by 17% between 1979 and 2020 and severe, rarer turbulence by more than 50%.