Singapore flight turbulence tragedy

Where your seatbelt! For short haul flights I use the toilet before boarding and don't get out of my seat, for longer flights I wait until I can see the toilet is empty and go quickly, needs must, then straight back and seat belt on. When my kids were under 6 they travelled in aircraft compatible car seats. Turbulence this severe is very rare though. I've flown in excess of 200,000 miles and never had severe turbulence.

I'm guessing you don't travel by car, train, tube, bicycle, boat or bus either......

Every airline I’ve flown with in the last 15-20 years advises in their safety briefing that you should wear your seatbelt whenever seated in case of unexpected turbulence.

I don’t think you are the only one who knows this & of course complacency sets in but as I said people could have been caught out by having their seat belt off for a legitimate reason at the wrong moment, we don’t know that everyone who was injured had their seatbelt off for hours & as I already said you can still get struck by something when belted in. I just find it a bit crass that so many comments are “this is why I wear my belt at all times”. It’s like when a women is raped in a park & posters say that’s why “I don’t cut through parks” or “walk alone when it’s dark”.

I hate flying, and am flying tomorrow, this is my absolute worst nightmare.

But I also understand that incidents like this are very rare indeed, keep your seatbelt on and it's overwhelmingly likely you'll be fine.

And this is why i will never go abroad by flight.

The only problem with doing this is I get asked to swap seats on almost every flight because I’m under 5 foot and taller people (usually men) think this means I don’t deserve the extra leg room. I’ve also been asked many times to swap my window seat for someone’s child and I’ve had so much pressure put on me to move - especially when I fly alone.
I wish people would book and pay for their own seats if they feel entitled to them, it makes me anxious every flight waiting for someone to ask me to move.

Bit ironic when you had asked someone to swap their allocated seat in the front row because you wanted it. Nice that they did swap but don't see any difference in people now asking you to swap @Minimili ?

This

Obviously cabin crew can’t be strapped in all the time and there may have been people in or waiting for the toilet who were just unlucky but it is clear that a lot of the passengers who got injured were in their seats and simply not strapped in. Every airline I’ve flown with in the last 15-20 years advises in their safety briefing that you should wear your seatbelt whenever seated in case of unexpected turbulence.

We had bad turbulence on a flight recently, it went on for minutes. But everyone was seated except the crew initially who quickly got to their seats so noone was injured at all.

It def is a risk as telemetry can't detect it yet so pilots don't know how long, tall or wifde it is.

Just know this, I am frequent flyer due to work 🙄 and turbulence has not been a feature except on the recent flight. Yes you may find a pocket, but real turbulence, def not!

A million Britons die every year. Some of them on aeroplanes.

Just to back up what a pp has said there appears to be no truth in the story that the aircraft “plunged” 6000 feet…

There was the turbulence encounter and shortly afterwards the aircraft descended 6000 feet in 3-5 minutes, which is a fairly normal rate of decent (around 2000 feet a minute or less) if for example you want to step down in altitude to get out of a turbulent layer.

The jurnos spotted this of Flightradar and completely misunderstood what they were looking out,..FlightRadar even issued comment about it this evening.

I flew this route a lot over a period of thirty years, the Bay of Bengal can be interesting at this time of year, very very large cumulonimbus clouds that you have to pick your way around using eyeball and/or weather radar but it’s all in a days work and I certainly never encountered anything close to being as bad as this.

No. Most flights experience turbulence. This was something of a freak occurrence, unlikely to repeat. Air travel is incredibly safe.

Actually It is more likely to happen at low altitudes, which is why they fly high to try and avoid wind patterns. But can happen at any altitude.

Still the safest way to travel though

Saying "just wear your seat belt" isn't "minimising it" that is literally what your seat belt is for! What did you think it was for?

Take some benadryl when you board and everyone is settled, or ask your doctor for a prescription of two lorazepam, one for the outbound flight and one for the return.

The fact is, there wouldn't have been injuries if everyone was strapped it....

Air hostesses can’t be strapped in the whole time though?

I know it’s not easy to overcome flying nerves but just think of how many thousands of flights are going along without incident every day, year after year. Turbulence is very common and I try and think of it as bumps in the road as a pp said above.
This level of turbulence is so rare, I’ve flown that leg many times and it won’t put me off, I actually booked the same flight again today and with Singapore Airlines..if nothing else it proves their
planes are well made! As stated above just be sure to keep your belt on but you’ll be absolutely fine, happy travels!

Remember OP the plane was fine, just wear your seatbelt.

I fly frequently and if there’s anything I’ve taken from this horrific tragedy is to always keep my seatbelt on moving forward.

I’ve Always removed it once the signs go off.

It’s quite normal to take your seat belt off to go to the toilet, stretch your legs or when getting something from the overhead locker plus the drop happened without much warning. Having a seatbelt on helps of course but it’s not a guarantee you avoid injury. If there is a hostess next to you with a trolley you could easily get hit by something, or by your neighbours iPad or bags stuffed under the seats etc.

I think I'd have a heart attack from the stress. I have been in turbulence where people was crying and some screaming and it's never been enough to cause injuries. Sometimes the cabin crew have crouched on the floor too. Weirdly going Singapour as well.

I can't imagine how bad this must have been.

Unfortunately to see the world you normally have to fly so it won't stop me from flying but I understand the fear

You need to get your head around actual risk, OP. Statistically you are far, far more likely to die falling downstairs, crossing a road or driving in the next month than you are flying — let alone from dying as a result of turbulence. That's so unlikely you might as well forget it, particularly if you keep your seatbelt on when you're seated. Flying is the safest form of transport.

Start thinking rationally. I do hope you're not teaching your children, if you have them, to allow irrational fear to rule their lives.

This is why I always wear my seatbelt on flights, even when the seat belt light is off.

Well I have experienced exactly what happened to the Singapore plane. I was 11, it was 1975 and I was flying BOAC from Heathrow to Sri Lanka via Muscat in the Arabian Gulf. We had just taken off from Muscat after refuelling - it was about 03:00 in the morning. There had been no a/c in the airport terminal and it was 40°C, so the flight attendant was pushing a trolley with cold drinks along the aisle when we hit Clear Air Turbulence and dropped like a brick - everything that wasn't strapped down hit the ceiling, and that included the flight attendant and the full drinks trolley!
We hit the bottom of the air pocket, about 600ft according to the pilot and everything that shot up to the ceiling, came raining down again.
There had been absolutely no warning whatsoever beforehand.
Amazingly there were only minor injuries because we were all strapped in as we were still climbing and even the flight attendant only had some cuts and bruises.
Always kept my seat belt fastened after that.

I used to be terrified of flying, I went abroad for the first time at 19 on the first family holiday my parents could afford and I got on the plane and then tried to get straight off.
I had no idea it would be so small and we’d be so tightly packed in, I had flown a small plane a few times (air cadets) and was also not impressed when I realised I wasn’t going to be fitted with a parachute 😂.

On my second ever flight though the plane was almost diverted back to the airport because I had such a bad panic attack, I was refusing to come home I hated flying so much. It took a lot of persuasion to get me on board.

I’ve found ways to cope after years of hating it.

I used to go onto the airport roof (car park) at Manchester to watch the planes taking off and landing, I found it reassuring.

I told staff how terrified I was and they were so kind and usually let me board first. I was allowed to chat to the pilots on a couple of occasions as well.
I was always seated in the front row which helped because if I panicked cabin crew would come and chat to me.
There was one occasion with allocated seats when someone refused to swap and let me sit at the front (which is completely understandable) but in the end someone agreed to swap after take off when they saw how distressed I was.

Since it’s been an option I always pay for extra leg room seats at the front, I book and choose seats as soon as possible.
I still find it reassuring seeing cabin crew moving around and I get served drinks first! Every bump used to make me panic wildly but now as long as I see how nonchalant cabin crew are I’m absolutely fine.
The extra leg room helps with the feeling of claustrophobia and being packed in a tight space.

I always book a window seat and then I can see we are in the air and the plane is flying normally.
I also like to check the wings are still on! I know it’s completely illogical but who cares if it reduces anxiety?
The only problem with doing this is I get asked to swap seats on almost every flight because I’m under 5 foot and taller people (usually men) think this means I don’t deserve the extra leg room. I’ve also been asked many times to swap my window seat for someone’s child and I’ve had so much pressure put on me to move - especially when I fly alone.
I wish people would book and pay for their own seats if they feel entitled to them, it makes me anxious every flight waiting for someone to ask me to move. I had to get a flight attendant involved last year because a woman kept letting her toddler come to my seat when I wouldn’t swap and she was climbing all over me and DP to see out of the window.

I always have a few drinks before I fly no matter what time of day it is, I buy little bottles of wine or spirits to take on board at the airport as well. I’ve had cabin crew telling me off for drinking them on the plane before take off but DP always tells them it’ll make their life easier if I drink it quickly before take off and they have never confiscated it as long as I’ve finished it before take off.

When I travel with DP he holds my hand and distracts me during take off and does breathing exercises with me so I don’t have a panic attack. It’s harder travelling alone but on almost every occasion another passenger has been nice enough to talk to me and reassure me.
We flew through a storm once and lightning was hitting the plane, I was travelling alone but the man next to me told me it was lights reflecting off another plane and wasn’t lightning. I just accepted it at the time then when we landed I thought about it more logically and realised he was just a very kind man!

I keep my seatbelt on at all times and if there is turbulence I remember something they showed us at air cadets to demonstrate how planes stay in the air. If you get an A4 piece of paper and blow under it then it lifts the paper. As long as you keep blowing the paper doesn’t drop, I like the jelly example someone shared on a previous post as well.

I also read the statistics on how safe it is to fly and had the flight tracker app to show how many planes take off and land safely every day.
I read you are more likely to be kicked to death by a donkey or win the lottery multiple times then die in a plane crash.

I try never to watch anything on the news or any films about plane crashes before flying, that really isn’t helpful for anyone.

I know these things don’t work for everyone but I thought I’d share as some people have also found them helpful - especially with scared children. The only part I struggle with now is taking off, I actually enjoy being in the air now. I even flew alone on Friday the 13th in seat 13 without too much anxiety! There are obviously a lot of superstitious people because it was very very cheap.

What happened today is an absolute tragedy but it’s made the news because of how rare it is. I hope the injured people pull through and my heart goes out to the family of the man who died.