By Angus Whitley
Twenty people remained in intensive care in Bangkok on Wednesday, more than 24 hours after deadly turbulence hit a Singapore Airlines Ltd. flight and forced the plane into an emergency landing.
One British man was killed and dozens of other people seriously hurt after Flight SQ321 from London to Singapore suddenly lost altitude as it entered Thai airspace. The latest update from hospital authorities in Thailand revealed the scale of the injury toll as bodies catapulted into the cabin roof and personal belongings were hurled around the aircraft.
Fourteen people who were on board needed surgery, Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital said Wednesday. Altogether, some 58 patients in three hospitals and clinics in the Thai capital were still receiving treatment. More than 100 people had required medical care immediately after the flight landed in Bangkok.
First-hand accounts of the drama are still emerging.
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With almost no warning, the aircraft struck severe turbulence and people standing in the cabin or sitting down without lapbelts ricocheted off the ceiling and back to the floor, one passenger told The Straits Times. Luggage and the remnants of breakfast were strewn over the floor, while oxygen masks dangled from the roof. Bleeding crewmembers attempted to treat some of the injured passengers.
According to the Straits Times, passengers who returned to Singapore from Bangkok the next day on a replacement flight were given S$1,000 ($740) cash inside a white Singapore Air envelope. The airline declined to comment to the newspaper on any compensation payments.
Turbulence can occur when a plane hits a strong air current that pushes or pulls the airframe. The phenomenon can be caused by pockets of hot air or powerful weather systems. At higher altitudes, aircraft might encounter hard-to-identify clear air turbulence caused by air masses with differing velocities.
Medical experts have outlined the unappreciated risks posed by turbulence in the wake of the fatal flight. Such incidents are so rare that airlines typically don’t mandate passengers wear seatbelts unless bad weather is expected.
The forces can fling passengers around so hard that it’s as dangerous as falling headfirst off a ladder or diving into a shallow concrete swimming pool, according to Rohan Laging, deputy director of emergency services at Melbourne hospital group Alfred Health.
Passengers who aren’t secured when an aircraft suddenly loses altitude like that are exposed to huge vertical loads. If they’re rammed into the roof of the cabin, they run the risk of serious spinal injury, head trauma or internal organ damage as their bodies abruptly decelerate.
Blunt trauma incidents, when bodies collide with each other or hard surfaces, are more dangerous for elderly passengers, those on blood-thinning medication, or people with existing health complaints, Laging said. Fortunately there’s a lower risk of penetrative injuries because many surfaces inside aircraft cabins are intentionally rounded, he said.