Singapore flight turbulence tragedy

He had heart problems for years and stents fitted, although the stress probably didn’t help, very sad though.

The poor chap using the toilet at the time!

What do you mean?

I’m saying people sadly die in flight fairly regularly for one reason or another. Why is this newsworthy? Why are the media leading with “man dies on turbulent flight” causing anxiety to people like the OP?

We had a drop due to turbulence on a flight home from Mexico in hurricane season. No one was injured I don't think but people were crying and throwing up. It wasn't the best experience but didn't put me off flying at all.

@Kitkat1523 plunged or plummeted same thing. Read the Times article. It also suggested it was the unexpected drop that caused all the injuries.

Yeah, just keep your seat belt on. These things do happen from time to time but they show us what pilots and planes are capable of overcoming.....it came out of the turbulence/drop, diverted and landed safely. The fact is, there wouldn't have been injuries if everyone was strapped it.....

@Haggisfish3
you are very wrong can happen above 15,000ft and short haul fly well above that.

Depends where you read your ‘news’ ….. none of my sources mentioned any plunging planes🙄

The news outlets are incorrect. The flight data is very clear.

Where have you seen that people’s ears were bleeding?

That’s not something I’ve seen reported. Every single injury that I’ve seen reported are explained by people being thrown upwards from their seats because they weren’t strapped in.

And if someone was bleeding from their ears for whatever reason it was not because turbulence plunged the plane by 6,000 feet. The flight data is very clear. The turbulence only shifted the altitude up and down within a margin of a few hundred feet over a period of 90 seconds. The 6,000 foot descent was a totally normal controlled descent that people who don’t understand turbulence reported incorrectly as the turbulence event. If you read the flight radar blog it has all the data there.

If they were, it would be because the people had banged them on a hard surface or they had been hit by an object flying through the air.

I feel very sad that the poor man died and feel concerned for those injured. I actually found it strangely comforting that despite such severe turbulence the pilot remained in control of the plane and landed it safely. To me it showed that even the most extreme turbulence doesn't seem to bring a plane down. I know it has happened before but only a few times in history.

NB: ‘feet’ not metres above.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/passenger-dies-after-london-flight-hit-by-turbulence-nkt9jzqbq

’within seconds of the seatbelt light being switched on the plane plummeted thousands of metres’

RIP Geoffrey Kitchen. How tragic.

@Kitkat1523 tell that to the news outlets

Except it didn’t drop dramatically 🙄..l. And this is how rumours start

People with underlying risk factors get on flights all the time! Why dismiss it as oh he had a pre existing condition

The plane didn’t drop that dramatically. The 6,000 feet being reported by some media outlets was a perfectly normal controlled descent by the pilot to a new flying altitude.

Why were people's ears bleeding then?

At a risk of sounding very pedantic, whilst terribly sad and tragic I think the reporting of this is rather inflammatory. Did the poor chap have a heart attack, or a cardiac arrest?

Heart attacks are caused by a lack of oxygen to the heart muscle, by narrowing of vessels or a clot.

Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating normally.

It would be incredibly unlikely I think to experience either of those without underlying risk factors.

More likely to have injuries from not wearing a seatbelt during extreme turbulence.

The way the news have reported this in some places is completely inaccurate. The reports that the plane “plunged” 6000 ft are nonsense. The turbulence involved the plane climbing and falling a couple of hundred feet over a period of about 90 seconds. The pilot then descended by 6000 feet of a period of around 3 minutes. It is normal for planes to descend by between 1500 and 3000 feet per minute so it was a completely normal descent. Turbulence, even extreme turbulence does not cause planes to drop 6,000 feet.

I always wear my seatbelt on flights and this shows why that is so important. It’s clear that most of the injuries were caused by people without seatbelts on being thrown upwards. Obviously, the cabin crew were up on their feet and anyone who happened to be in or on their way to the loo would also not be strapped in but people in their seats should have been belted in. Bad turbulence is rare but can happen. The worst turbulence I ever experienced was on a London to Bangkok flight, luckily they got the seatbelt lights on in time for people to strap in and nobody was hurt but it was scary and there were things that got thrown about a bit.

https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/1-dead-dozens-injured-in-sq321-turbulence/

This

Yes, all the time pilots are seated they will have their lap strap fastened. They have a 4-point harness and will secure the shoulder straps too during turbulence and for take off/ landing.

Absolutely nothing will happen to the plane, just like nothing happened this time.
Modern planes are unbelievably tough, something like this will have done precisely zero damage.

The squishy creatures in the passenger cabin are the weak point!

I think it's because the air was moving more vigorously so maybe like a hand moving / shaking the jelly cup a bit rather than just giving it a little wobble. But with severe turbulence apparently humans often perceive that the aeroplane has dropped hundreds or thousands of feet when in reality it might just be 10-20 feet. 10 feet sounds a whole lot less scary when you think a person is 6 foot ish.

Was once flying to Samoa when we hit turbulence. My husband was walking back from the toilet with our baby when suddenly the plane dropped. Thankfully a Samoan who was seated and wearing a seatbelt grabbed by husband by his trousers and prevented him and my baby daughter sustaining injury.