‘The seat belt light came on and almost immediately after the turbulence hit, I myself, followed by a large amount of others, were thrown in the air hitting the roof,’ the British tourist said.
One moment Toby Pearl was ensconced in his economy-class seat in row 43 aboard a flight from London to Singapore. The next all hell broke loose, with personal belongings, food and even people being hurled around the cabin, crashing into overhead lockers and causing oxygen masks to deploy from the ceiling.
The massive Boeing 777 aircraft operated by Singapore Airlines had hit a pocket of turbulence so violent that it left one person dead and scores of others seriously injured. Pearl said he was among passengers who rushed to provide first aid immediately after the impact, but they were unable to help a 73 year-old Briton, who died of a suspected heart attack.
“The seat belt light came on and almost immediately after the turbulence hit, I myself, followed by a large amount of others, were thrown in the air hitting the roof,” Pearl said in response to written questions after the aircraft made an emergency landing in Bangkok. “It felt like we had crashed, I thought the plane was going down. You could hear the smashing of glass in the back of the cabin.”
Cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,200m) and with a good two hours left before the aircraft was due to touch down in Singapore, the twin-aisle plane was suddenly and forcefully shaken by what Pearl described as a “big hit” that took everyone off guard, followed by a smaller, “more manageable” impact.
The aircraft swiftly began an emergency diversion into Bangkok, according to data by flight tracking service Flightradar24. Emergency crews said seven people were critically injured and admitted to hospital. Others, including Pearl, received medical check-ups and complementary helpings of hamburgers before being cleared for their onward journey.
