A 73-year-old English passenger died of a heart attack and 54 others were injured, at least seven seriously, due to an “air vacuum” that caused a Singapore Airlines plane to fall almost two thousand meters in three minutes. The plane, a Boeing 777-300, had departed from Heathrow airport in London and was headed to Singapore. The accident occurred after 11 hours of smooth flight, never disturbed by the slightest jolt.
The photos and videos released by passengers after the emergency landing in Bangkok show apocalyptic scenes: oxygen masks are hanging from wires, many ceiling bulkheads are torn down, several panels are missing, the floor is cluttered with objects, glasses, food, some overhead bins are open and emptied of hand luggage, thrown like projectiles who knows where. The galley compartment is devastated, with the breakfast trolleys upside down, the coffee, croissants and fruit juices on the floor. A stewardess is sitting on her seat with a blood stain on her face. Next to her a steward still has the terror of what he felt in his eyes, her hair is disheveled, her face pale.
Turbulence on the London-Singapore flight, what happened: 1800 meters of altitude lost in five minutes
WHAT HAPPEN
When there is an “air gap” the plane loses altitude not because it runs out of air, but because it encounters a downdraft that causes it to crash, usually only for a few seconds. If passengers are not wearing their seat belts, they are lifted from the seat or the floor. On Singapore flight SQ321, many of the 211 passengers and 18 crew members were not wearing their seat belts. After 11 hours of flight, when the lights come back on and it is announced that breakfast is about to be served, you get up, go to the toilet, take something from your hand luggage, prepare for the last part of the journey. It was precisely in those moments, Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student, told Reuters that “suddenly the plane began to rear up and there was like a tremor.” «Suddenly – he continued – there was a very dramatic fall, and everyone who was sitting without their belts was thrown towards the ceiling. Some people hit their heads on the overhead bins and dented them, others broke the bulkheads of the lights and oxygen masks.”
THE TESTIMONIALS
Andrew Davies, from London wrote on «X»: «The seat belt sign came on, I just had time to fasten it and the plane fell. Many people were injured, including the stewards who were stoic and did everything they could.” «The passengers’ personal belongings – wrote Davies – were scattered everywhere, coffee and water were splashed on the ceiling. There were many injured with head lacerations and bleeding ears. A lady was screaming in pain from a back injury. I couldn’t help her, I just got her some water.”
On the plane, which left London at 10.17pm local time on Monday, there were mostly Australian, Malaysian, British and Singaporean passengers. There were no Italians on board. The accident occurred while the plane was flying over the Andaman Sea and was approaching Thailand. According to tracking data, he was traveling at an altitude of 11,300 meters when within three minutes he fell to 9,400 meters. It remained at this altitude for about 10 minutes and then descended to land in Bangkok.
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