What happened on Singapore Airlines flight hit by extreme turbulence?

A British man has died and 30 others have been injured after their flight from London to Singapore hit severe turbulence.

One passenger said the plane suffered a "dramatic drop", throwing those not wearing seatbelts onto the ceiling.

Seven of those injured are in a critical condition. The man who died is thought to have had a heart attack.
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[kittysparkleeyes]

As someone who has always been slapdash about wearing my seat belt, I think i will be wearing my seatbelt from now on. I imagine most the injuries occured in people who were not strapped down and hit the roof of the plane.

[evabartlett]

Greetings to all. My deepest condolences for the woman who was also injured, and loss of her husband, and all people affected, and injured due to severe turbulence. My prayers are with you all!

[titteryenot]

Given that the average number of commercial flights per day is 97, 439, it’s quite remarkable these types of incident are vanishingly rare.

[elizabethforsyth]

I have taken that flight many times... the Singapore Airlines crew are always brilliant, hope everyone recovers ... very frightening for all involved.

[shutup]

sudden drops out of nowhere are my biggest fear when on a plane, that feeling is awful of just dropping a few hundred feet in a second or two

[Andie-nubx]

This is why I don’t like seeing heavy cases in overhead lockers.. especially hard cases 😢

[cherrytomato]

We had a sudden drop during a flight from Edinburgh and it was terrifying. Happened without a warning too, thankfully all were buckled in at that point. This one was much worse and must have happened totally unexpectedly when people walked and moved around. My condolences. Awful thing to happen.

[linndyful]

I never remove my seat belt unless I need the loo

[jeromeryan]

Kudos to the pilots they still managed to control the aircraft

[izurelia]

I was on a plane from Mauritius last week and the same thing happened on a Boeing, it was very sudden and the seatbelt sign was switched off at the time. People were sleeping across seats and got lifted up out of their seats and woken up my screams! Always wear a seat belt!

[sulecuber]

Im from Myanmar, Yangon above where the incident occurs. We are experiencing deadly heat wave for a month as i remember. But since 2-3 ago unexpected thunderstorms are happening because of the storm. May be it is one of the factors.

[Jonathan_Doe_]

Always go with a window seat (less chance of stuff from the overheads hitting you). Always buckle up for the whole flight unless standing up to go to the toilet.

[David-deltoid]

What is wrong with people “ohhhh someone’s hurt let’s film it”

[debwilkes]

Very sad . Condolences to his family and friends .

[danielclaridge]

A plane being slammed down in turbulance around 150ft is no joke. Aircraft are nuts. Xx

[px]

One decade ago, I was on a flight to La Reunion island, and we got in what I thought was called an "air pocket". The aircraft quickly lost altitude, dropping rapidly until it recovered, which felt like having hit a hard stop.
Fortunately, no service was being carried out by the flight attendants, however some of the passengers were injured; mainly those who were not sitting strapped to their seats.
The pilot came on the PA to apologize and said this was not detected on his radar, hence why we got no warning.
I have been flying since the early 80's, and this has so far been the only time I experienced such a drastic event.
Even if the wings are supposedly capable of handling the stress, it really feels terrible for the few seconds you don't understand what is happening...
This is something I am not looking forward to going through again!!! It is incredibly scary, especially because the initial feeling is that you are going down!

[rostycosy]

I have flown hundreds of times over the Atlantic and gone through some very serious storms ...have faced sudden drops ....but nothing like this . Remember a particular drop over Holand after take off not long after with Lufthansa but the pilot hung on to that plane and we all had the seat belt fasten up..

[highhat]

0:04 you haven't flown to ibiza mate

[ptypty]

I wonder how the cabin crew reacted😮, they have such a hard job, even more so in situation like this one, thanks but not thanks.😒

[guthredstromvar]

"no one want's leave a plane like this" jesus christ channel 4