This is what plane passengers experienced in the worst turbulence-related crash in decades
Earlier this week, one Singapore Airlines flight from London ARRIVE Singapore pushed into chaos and forced emergency landing in Bangkok after severe turbulence left a 73-year-old British man dead and more than 104 other passengers injured. In just a few minutes, Boeing 777-300ER dropped nearly 6,000 feet.
Oxygen mask fall down, but so do some boxes that actually hold them in place, according to Wall Street Journal. People were thrown into the air across the aisle. That’s how much force we’re talking about here. Now we’re getting a closer look at what happened during those terrifying few minutes plane like words passenger who was there?
Ali Bukhari, a 27-year-old Australian engineer who was returning from their honeymoon with his wife, spoke to Wall Street Journal about what they see and feel:
“My wife and I thought we were going to die,” Bukhari said. “We didn’t think we would make it.”
Bukhari and his wife were unharmed; they were wearing seat belts. But many others were seriously injured. Blood flowed down his face. Bukhari said someone was pumping the chest of a man whose body was lying on the floor.
At that moment, he had a scary thought: What if something goes wrong with the plane? He considered looking through the window for signs of damage outside but hesitated for fear of what he might see. Surely, chaos couldn’t cause that much harm, he thought.
The plane encountered one of the worst situations turbulence-related accidents ever, and the 73-year-old man died as the first fatality on a commercial flight involves turbulence for nearly three decades. A further 104 passengers received medical treatment in Bangkok and 20 of them remain in the intensive care unit.
Here is some more information about the passenger’s injuries, from WSJ:
At one of the hospitals where many victims were taken, 6 people were found to have traumatic brain injuries, 22 people had injuries to the spine or spinal cord. Dr. Adinun Kittiratanapaibool, director of Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, a private medical facility, said some patients have shown signs of paralysis, although it is unknown whether the damage is permanent. . At least 17 people have undergone surgery.
Sockets also spoke with Keith Davis, a 59-year-old landscape architect from Australia, who said the incident shocked him. Davis was Adjust your seat when he noticed his wife’s glass of water shaking. Before he could do that, he and his wife flew into the air.
His wife crashed into the upper luggage box and fell down the aisle. His head went straight through a ceiling panel and he landed in his chair.
[…]
He said the first thing he did was lean over his wife and ask if she was okay. “Then I realized I was dripping blood all over her body,” he said.
His wife, Kerry Jordan, is in the ICU but is stable and alert. Davis suffered mainly superficial injuries – a laceration along his hairline causing heavy bleeding and a black eye – and localized pain in his right shoulder.
In the chaotic moments after the incident, his biggest concern was keeping his wife safe. He braced his legs around her to hold her in place and didn’t let anyone move her until they reached safety, he said. The couple, who had been on holiday in England, now just want to return home, but that means having to get on another plane.
WSJ also spoke to a passenger, Andrew Davies, 54, who was not seriously injured. Therefore, he went around the cabin to help those less fortunate.
Davies said the seat belt sign came on just before the crash. “It was a very sudden drop,” he said. It seemed to end as suddenly as it began.
“There wasn’t really enough time for me to think, ‘Oh my gosh, is this going to stop?’” he said.
Moving around the plane to help the injured, Davies saw passengers jostling and jostling each other. They had to weave through falling objects, he said, some even lying on the floor.
A man in business class suffered a large cut on his head. Farther away, another person was clutching his chest, looking extremely painful. A woman injured her back and was screaming in pain. A cut on another person’s ear was bleeding onto her white shirt.
Davies and others moved an unconscious elderly man out of his chair, placing him near the emergency exit where there was more space. A passenger with medical training requested a defibrillator, which was delivered by a limping crew member. They performed CPR for at least 20 minutes and then someone said, “I think we need to stop,” Davies recalled.
“That’s my husband, that’s my husband,” his widow said over and over.
About 15 minutes after the incident, pilot – who was “obviously shaken” limped into the cabin and told passengers what had happened and what he saw was almost a nightmare. Here’s what it looks like inside, from Wall Street Journal:
The chaos lasted about a minute, making the cabin look like the site of a hurricane. Food and drinks were scattered throughout the overhead compartment. Several ceiling panels fell, causing parts of the plane’s interior – a jumble of pipes and ducts – to fall out.
In the hallways and kitchens where flight attendants prepare meals, food trays have slid off their racks. Scattered on the floor were packets of chips, water bottles, broken wine glasses, coffee cups, kettles, apples, and sliced kiwis.
