A former pilot and air crash investigator has suggested that climate change may have been responsible for the horrific plane crash that left one passenger dead and dozens more injured.
Nearly 60 Australians were aboard flight SQ321 from London to Singapore on Tuesday when the Boeing 777-300ER plane suddenly plunged more than 6,000 feet in just five minutes, throwing passengers and crew into the roof.
Geoffrey Kitchen, a 73-year-old musical theater director from Gloucestershire, UK, died of a suspected heart attack, while eight Australians were later hospitalized for injuries sustained in the chaos.
The disaster, which was caused by a pocket of unexpected turbulence 11 hours into the journey, forced the plane to make an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport.
Nearly 60 Australians were aboard flight SQ321 from London to Singapore on Tuesday when the Boeing 777-300ER plane suddenly plunged to more than 6,000 feet in just five minutes, throwing passengers and crew into the ceiling.
The disaster, caused by a pocket of unexpected turbulence 11 hours into the trip, forced the plane to make an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport.
Shocking images taken inside the plane captured a scene of total carnage that included air stewardesses with bloodstained faces, oxygen masks hanging from the damaged ceiling and rubbish strewn in every aisle.
Tim Atkinson, an aviation consultant and former air accident investigator, said the plane was one of “the largest and, dare I say, most solid airframes flying around the world.”
“It is considered an exceptionally well-built machine in the pilot and aviation community and for the turbulence to have had this effect on a triple seven it must have been quite severe really,” he told Sky News.
Atkinson said the area over which the plane was flying, known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone, is “famous among pilots, and dare I say passengers, for its turbulence.”
After about 11 hours of flying from takeoff in London, the plane plummeted 6,000 feet in just five minutes, causing chaos in the cabin. In subsequent images, a flight attendant is seen with blood on her face (pictured)
“Despite extreme caution, sometimes there is turbulence ahead that cannot be identified, and the unfortunate result of an encounter is injuries and, very rarely, deaths,” he said.
Atkinson urged all passengers to keep their seat belts fastened whenever they are seated.
He also suggested a disturbing theory about the disaster.
“As climate change occurs, we see turbulence becoming more common and more severe and that is something the aviation industry is trying to address at the moment,” Mr Atkinson told the bbc.
A global study published last year by the University of Reading in the United Kingdom found that climate change is increasing turbulence during flights, and predicted the trend will worsen.
Tim Atkinson (pictured), aviation consultant and former air crash investigator, suggested climate change could have been responsible for the plane’s horrific crash.
It found that in a typical location in the North Atlantic, one of the world’s busiest routes, the total annual duration of severe turbulence increased by 55 percent, from 17.7 hours in 1979 to 27.4 hours in 2020.
“My message is that we have to do something, otherwise flights will become more turbulent in the future (as climate change creates more turbulence),” said Professor Paul Williams, an atmospheric scientist and co-author of the study.
Of the 211 passengers and 18 crew aboard the Singapore Airlines flight, Thai authorities said 71 people had been sent for treatment, six of whom were seriously injured and many suffered head lacerations from being thrown upwards.
At least eight Australians are hospitalized in Bangkok and the Australian government is trying to identify if there are any more injuries.
There were 56 Australians on board among the 211 passengers and 18 crew.
“Consular officers at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok are providing consular assistance to eight Australians transferred to Bangkok hospital,” a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.
“The Australian Embassy in Bangkok and the Australian High Commission in Singapore continue to conduct investigations to confirm whether more Australians are affected.”
Singapore Airlines offered its condolences to the family of the man who died and apologized for the “traumatic experience” suffered by passengers and crew.