SIA passengers endured 62 seconds of extreme turbulence on May 21 London-Singapore flight



SINGAPORE: The Singapore Airways (SIA) Flight SQ321 that was rocked by extreme turbulence on Tuesday climbed and descended quickly twice in 62 seconds, beautiful the passengers with one dying of coronary heart assault, because the plane flew over the Irrawaddy Delta area of Myanmar, it emerged on Saturday. One passenger — 73-year-old Briton Geoffrey Kitchen — died, and dozens have been injured within the incident.It’s the first SIA aviation accident involving a fatality for the reason that SQ006 crash in Taiwan in October 2000.
Because the flight, which was heading to Singapore from London, skilled sudden extreme turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin through the breakfast service, the pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the airplane carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, the place the airplane made an emergency touchdown at 3.45 pm (4.45 pm Singapore time).
Granular flight knowledge from flight monitoring web site Flightradar24 reveals that the Boeing 777-300ER climbed and descended quickly twice in 62 seconds, ranging from 3:49 pm Singapore time, because the airplane was nearing the top of a continuous flight from London to Singapore, The Straits Instances newspaper reported.
Throughout this time, the airplane climbed from its cruise altitude of 37,000 toes to 37,400 toes after which dropped to 36,975 toes earlier than settling again onto its cruise altitude.
This means that it was the fast transition between the climb and descent attributable to the turbulence – and never the precise change in altitude itself, which was comparatively minor – that brought about pandemonium within the cabin.
The Flightradar24 knowledge – derived from a worldwide community of ground-based receivers, satellites and radars that obtain flight knowledge from plane transponders – contradicts some earlier reviews, which pinpointed the plane descending from 37,000 toes to 31,000 toes between 4.06 pm and 4.10 pm as the reason for the accidents.
This latter transition seems to be the pilots finishing up a managed descent, most probably to evaluate the scenario earlier than diverting to Bangkok, in accordance with the broadsheet report citing a industrial pilot who has flown each civil and navy multi-engine passenger plane for greater than 20 years.
Talking on situation of anonymity, the pilot stated the fast climb would have launched optimistic G-forces onto passengers, inflicting sitting passengers to really feel like they’ve been pinned down of their seats.
The following fast descent would have resulted in unfavourable G-forces, which might have despatched unrestrained passengers and different free objects hurtling upwards onto the ceiling of the cabin, he added.
The embattled airplane went by way of one other cycle of fast climb and descent, inflicting extra harm and accidents, with some passengers and objects hitting the roof panels and overhead lockers earlier than being flung again down.
That is mirrored within the accounts of passengers on board SQ321 who reported being thrown onto the cabin roof, with Australian passenger Teandra Tukhunen recounting that she was abruptly woken up when she was thrown to the roof after which to the ground.
The G-force knowledge would have been captured by the fast entry recorder fitted onboard the plane. This can be a flight knowledge recorder designed to offer fast and quick access to uncooked flight knowledge by way of means similar to USB or cell phone networks.
The Flightradar24 knowledge confirmed that the Boeing 777 first attained a climb fee of 1,664 toes per minute (fpm) – or 507m per minute, double the peak of 52-storey Capital Tower – earlier than descending at 1,536fpm six seconds later. It quickly returned to a climb fee of 900fpm a mere three seconds later, after which descended at 1,536 fpm after one other 10 seconds.
Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat stated on Friday that investigators from Singapore’s Transport Security Investigation Bureau are going by way of knowledge from the cockpit voice recorder and the flight knowledge recorder.
The USA Nationwide Transportation Security Board’s knowledge from 2009 to 2018 confirmed that passengers injured in turbulence-related accidents have been most frequently utilizing, ready for or strolling to or from the bathroom. The second-most widespread group was passengers who have been seated however not belted up.





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