BANGKOK: Twenty people landed up in intensive care units in Bangkok’s hospitals on Wednesday after a terrifying ‘high-altitude plunge’ on a flight from London to Singapore. An elderly passenger died and over 100 people sustained injuries.

Singapore Airlines flight ‘SQ321’ hit “sudden extreme turbulence” over Myanmar (10 hours into its journey to Singapore), abruptly ‘rising’ and ‘plunging’ several times.

One passenger stated people were ‘thrown around the cabin’ (so violently) that they put dents in the ceiling during the drama at 11,300 metres (37,000 feet). This left dozens with head injuries.

Photographs from inside the plane portray that the cabin was in chaos, strewn with food, drinks bottles, luggage and with oxygen masks dangling from the aircraft ceiling.

The plane, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members, made an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. Medical staff used gurneys to ferry the injured to ambulances waiting on the tarmac.

“I was flung up to the roof and then as the plane dropped forward so did I” one passenger told Australian media upon arrival in Sydney. “I then hit the floor quite hard and all the breakfast items and glass flew forward as well.

“The poor crew was preparing breakfast for everyone, so they got the worst injuries.”

A 73-year-old British male died and 104 people were injured. A hospital in Bangkok stated that its staff were either treating or had treated, 85 of those injured including 20 people who were taken to intensive care units.

The 20 who wound up in intensive care were from Australia, Britain, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Philippines, according to the Samitivej Hospital without specifying how many were passengers or crew.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2024