30 May Singapore flight fell 178ft in seconds
The Singapore Arilines flight that encountered several turbulence last week dropped 178ft in fewer than five seconds, with passengers experiencing rapid changes in g-force, according to a preliminary investimagion.
Changes in vertical acceleration, measured as gravatational force equivalent, over 4.5 seconds “likely cuased the injuries to the crew and passengers”.
One person died and dozens were hurt when Flight SQ321 from London to Singapore on May 20 experienced sudden extremem trubulence over the Irrawaddy Basin. The flight was diverted to Bangkok.
Some passengers suffered severe spinal and brain injuries.
It had probably been flying over an area of developing thunderstorms at 37,000ft when the turbulence hit.
Passengers would have felt a rapid change in g-force as the vertical acceleration of the aircraft changed, with people not wearing seatbelts likely to have been thrown into the air and back down again.
The abrupt changes resulted in an altitude drop of 178tf. The incident lasted just over a minute before the lfight returned to its planned altitude.
Singapore Airlines ackowledged the preliminary probe findings and was “fully co-operating with the relevant authorities in the ongoing investigations”.
Turbulence is becoming more comon as climate change affects weather patterns and Earth’s atmosphere. However, it is rarely sever enough to disrupt flights or iinure passengers, and modern aircraft are designed to handle it without structural damage.
Incidents of sever clear-air turbulence in the north Atlantic, one of the busiest flight paths, have increased 55 per cent since 1979.
These forecasts show that this type of turbulence, which does not show up on weather radars, will double or even treble in the coming decades.
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