Singapore flight turbulence tragedy

First time I ever flew (with school, in a Viscount it was so long ago) we hit a storm/turbulence. Like most instances of such it was absolutely fine.

What happened today is dreadful, but incredibly rare, never heard of such a thing before. Thinks about how many road crashes there are every day, it's a cliche but..

I don't like flying and had horrific turbulence in the same area many years ago and that's why I am afraid of it. BUT I know how safe flying is in the grand scheme, how important it is to buckle in when not up, and that turbulence will rarely if ever bring the actual plane down. I am married to an aviation specialist, who helps talk me through any turbulence. I am flying this weekend. Hold your nerve OP and hit the G&Ts.

Which was surely brought on by the extreme turbulence, what do you mean by hyping it up?

I’m a nervous flyer and this is my worst nightmare and an absolute tragedy but it won’t put me off flying.

It’s so incredibly rare!

I don’t fly often but we did some mild turbulence last time I flew and the seatbelt light came back on. I always keep my belt on so I was already strapped in.

The cabin crew didn’t panic so I just went with it and it was absolutely fine.

As with any other incident, such as a hard landing, the plane will be inspected thoroughly before being allowed to fly again.

I think it's more that it stops it crashing to the ground, the plane will stay in the air pocket..

@mildlydispeptic I’d trust Singapore to be all over their stock.

I'm sat in an airport right now waiting for a flight home. 😬

He had a heart attack. News it’s hyping it up.

Oh bugger. Now I'm nervous again.

@mildlydispeptic what about the next time it flies & hits turbulence? How much strain can the infrastructure take particularly if an older plane?

Re: jelly trick to help those scared of turbulence, how was the plane able to drop so dramatically if air pressure prevents plane falling?

Actually, to me it's quite reassuring that a plane can experience this kind of turbulence and not break up. I'll be less twitchy next time we hit an air pocket.

Less reassuring was the comment that this type of turbulence is going to increase with climate change.

Only times I remove my belt when in a plane is to leave seat to visit loo, get bag from overhead locker etc.

I can see why it would be worrying when you have a flight coming up but think how rare this is. Think about how many fatal car crashes there are daily, yet most of us don’t care about driving! Long distance driving is my fear!

YAB very understandably U OP, for everything said above. Mercifully, it is very rare.

Terrifying for those on board though. I think if I were one of them I would be setting up home in Bangkok, as god himself wouldn't get me back on a plane.

He had a heart attack. I would’ve had a heart attack as I hate turbulence.

But it’s an extremely rare event for turbulence to be this bad. Plus, you’re probably unlikely to encounter extreme tropical storms on a short flight from the UK. 😬

Keep your seatbelt on and consider this incident has reduced the odds of it happening again any time soon.

@SpringBunnies does turbulence like this weaken a plane & with climate change making events like this less rare is potentially weakened infrastructure a possibility I wonder?

Same. I loosen it a bit but leave it fastened.

Yes this this!

I used to fly from the UK to Australia via Singapore about once a year before covid. never gave it a thought - but then after covid I developed an extreme fear. I had to go to Australia for family reasons.

I was told about the jelly trick and it fixed me. We had a fair bit of turbulence over the java Sea which lasted a good 40 minutes and I actually read and dozed through it without issues.

Edited to add- yes occasionally extreme turbulence happens but it is so rare it makes the news. On this occasion the poor man tragically died and that is an awful tragedy. But thankfully very very rare.

They dropped thousands of feet. It sounds horrendous

I think it must have been a very very bad turbulence to have that many injured. I wouldn’t minimise it with just wear a seat belt. But it is a very rare occurrence.

I’m another one who always keeps the seatbelt, on but I’ve flown I’ve flown long haul 3 times in the last year and short hall a couple of times and have barely had a bump so I think it’s pretty rare to get bad turbulence…It does sound bloody terrifying though.

Whilst is a tragedy, a horrible thing to have happened, don't forget that this is also a rare occasion. Whilst people may get bumped at times, and slight injuries, from turbulence it is very unusual for these to be significant in this way.

Turbulence does happen on flights. It's not particularly nice. However, in the vast majority of cases, outside of such unusual circumstances, you can reduce your risk by keeping your seat belt fastened whenever seated,