BANGKOK — Rattled travelers and crew landed in Singapore on Wednesday after a terrifying high-altitude plunge on a flight from London during which an elderly passenger died and more than 80 were injured.
Singapore Airlines Flight SQ321 hit "sudden extreme turbulence" over Myanmar 10 hours into its journey on Tuesday, abruptly rising and plunging several times.
One passenger said people were thrown around the cabin so violently that they dented the ceiling during the drama at 11,300 meters (37,000 feet), leaving dozens with head injuries.
Photos from inside the plane show the cabin in chaos, strewn with food, drink bottles and luggage, and with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
Singapore Airlines Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong said on Wednesday that the carrier was "very sorry for the traumatic experience" endured by those on board.
"On behalf of Singapore Airlines, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased," he said in a video statement.
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 on Tuesday night 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.
A Thai Airways employee told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that he saw "more than 10" ambulances rushing to the scene.
Airport staff separated passengers into four groups based on their medical condition, said the airline employee, who gave only his first name, Poonyaphat.
A relief flight carrying 131 passengers and 12 crew landed at Singapore's Changi Airport on Wednesday morning.
Relieved relatives greeted the arrivals with hugs, but all were too shaken to talk to waiting reporters.
Andrew Davies, a British passenger aboard the Boeing 777-300ER, told BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) 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 that 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.
Sympathies offered
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sent his "deepest condolences" to the family and loved ones of the dead man, identified as Geoff Kitchen, a musical theater director from near Bristol in southwestern England.
The city-state is sending investigators to Bangkok to probe the incident, and Wong posted on Facebook that they were "working closely with Thai authorities."
Of the passengers, 56 were Australians, 47 British and 41 Singaporeans, the airline said.
Malaysia's Foreign Ministry said nine of its citizens were hospitalized, including one in a critical but stable condition.
An AFP photographer saw people in Singapore Airlines yellow vests entering the plane on Wednesday as it remained grounded in Bangkok.
"In terms of exactly what happened, it's too early to tell. But I think passengers are too casual onboard commercial aircraft," United States-based aerospace safety expert Anthony Brickhouse told AFP.
"The moment the captain turns off the seatbelt sign, people literally unbuckle," he said.
Davies, the passenger, said "the plane suddenly dropped" at the very moment a seatbelt sign came on.
Scientists have long warned that climate change is likely to increase so-called clear air turbulence, which is invisible to radar.
A 2023 study found the annual duration of clear air turbulence increased by 17 percent from 1979 to 2020, with the most severe cases increasing by more than 50 percent.
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