Singaporean investigators are examining the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder after one passenger died and greater than 100 were injured when a Singapore Airlines plane hit severe turbulence this week, the country’s transport minister said on Friday.
Passengers and crew of flight SQ321 suffered skull, brain and spinal injuries after they were brutally thrown across the cabin during Tuesday’s terrifying high-altitude ordeal.
The plane from London to Singapore, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members, needed to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, where no less than 48 individuals are still in hospital.
Flight tracking data shows the Boeing 777-300ER plunged to a depth of 1,800 meters (6,000 feet) in only a couple of minutes, and passengers said this happened, so suddenly many had no time to lock their seatbelts.
“We have a team that went to Bangkok and obtained data from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder,” Singapore’s Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said in a press release.
“They are now reviewing data from these two recorders to be able to determine what happened at those moments. We are therefore waiting for the results of the investigation to understand what happened during this time.”
Singapore Airlines said on Friday it had tightened its seat belt rules on flights and brought a “more cautious approach” to turbulence after the incident.
“In addition to suspending the service of hot drinks when the seat belt warning is activated, the service of meals will even be suspended,” the statement said.
“SIA will continue to review our processes as the safety of our passengers and crew is of the utmost importance.”
U.S. investigators also traveled to Thailand to research the incident.
Aviation safety experts say passengers often wear their seatbelts too loosely, putting them in danger if the plane experiences unexpected turbulence.
Scientists also warn that so-called clear air turbulence, invisible to radar, is getting worse resulting from climate change.
The director of Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital in Bangkok, where many of the injured were treated, said his staff had never treated such serious injuries brought on by turbulence.
Australian passenger Keith Davis described the ordeal which left his wife Kerry with a serious spinal injury and lack of feeling below the waist.
“It was absolute carnage, immediately. It was absolutely surreal. You know, there isn’t any warning,” he told Australian broadcaster Channel 9.
“Before we knew it, we were on the ceiling. And then boom, we’re on the bottom. And you do not know what is going on on. And you literally fell 6,000 feet.
Davis said his wife hit the overhead bin doors, then fell to the aisle floor and was unable to maneuver for the remaining of the flight.
The plane was picked up at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok by emergency services, which used trolleys to move the injured to ambulances waiting on the tarmac.
Photos taken contained in the plane after landing in Bangkok show chaos within the cabin, strewn with food, drinks and luggage, with oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.
Singapore Airlines chief executive Goh Choon Phong apologized for the “traumatic experience” and offered condolences to the family of the deceased, a 73-year-old Briton.
