Fatal turbulence on Singapore Airlines flight leads to spinal surgeries for passengers, prompting airline to adopt new safety measures
Several passengers from the Singapore Airlines flight that encountered severe turbulence will require spinal surgery, a Bangkok hospital said, AP reported. The rare in-flight turbulence killed one passenger.
Singapore Airlines horror: Passengers suffered spinal, brain and skull injuries
• Nearly 60 passengers were injured when the plane hit sudden extreme turbulence at 37,000 feet over the Irrawaddy Basin.
• Twenty-two passengers on a Singapore Airlines flight had spinal cord injuries.
• Six others, including a two-year-old, suffered brain and skull injuries.
• Geoffrey Kitchen, a 73-year-old British passenger, died of likely of a heart attack on the flight.
• Twenty people are in intensive care, but none are life-threatening.
•The oldest patient is 83, and the youngest is a two-year-old with a concussion.
• Forty patients are at the hospital, while 65 passengers and two crew members remain in Bangkok where the flight made an emergency landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Singapore Airlines tweaks seat belt rule
Singapore Airlines announced on Friday that it is adopting a “more cautious approach” to managing turbulence after Flight SQ321 abruptly lost altitude.
The airline said that in-flight meal service will be halted when the seatbelt sign is on, and hot drinks will not be served. Crew members will also return to their seats and fasten their seatbelts.
No mandatory seatbelts throughout flight
However, the Singapore Airlines new policy does not mandate that passengers wear seatbelts throughout the entire flight. Ron Bartsch, a former safety chief at Qantas Airways, noted that deaths and serious injuries from severe turbulence are so rare that introducing permanent restrictions might deter some passengers.
