Shaken passengers on a Singapore Airlines flight have finally reached Singapore on a relief flight from Bangkok on Wednesday. The Boeing 777-300ER London-Singapore flight was diverted to Bangkok after it was hit by turbulence. Passengers and cabin crew were slammed around the cabin leaving over 30 injured. A 73-year-old British passenger died of a suspected heart attack.
Passengers, luggage hit the ceiling
Passenger Dzafran Azmir said that he had seen other passengers suffer concussions after hitting the ceiling. “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.”
Photographs taken of the interior of the plane confirmed what he was saying. There were gashes in the overhead cabin panels, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling and luggage strewn around. Another passenger said some people’s heads had slammed into the lights above the seats.
Singapore Airlines’ relief flight
Singapore Airlines took 131 passengers and 12 crew from the relief flight from Bangkok. The flight reached Singapore just before 5 a.m. (2100 GMT). There were 211 passengers including many Australians, British, and Singaporeans, and 18 crew onboard the original flight. The injured fliers and their families have remained in Bangkok for now.
Airlines CEO expresses condolences
Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong expressed his condolences in a video message to the family and the loved ones of the deceased. Singapore’s Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said in a statement on Facebook that officers from Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau have arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday night. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is sending an accredited representative and four technical advisers
(REUTERS)
