Singapore flight turbulence tragedy

[Freespirit44]

Posting for traffic.

Since I have heard the news I am absolutely terrified.

I am a VERY anxious flyer. For this reason I haven't flown in over seven years.

The news of this tragedy has triggered me as i have a short haul flight next week from the UK.

Anyone else feel the same?

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!

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

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.

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

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

Oh bugger. Now I'm nervous again.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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..

@Cityandmakeup I honestly don't think it's being unnecessarily hyped by the media. Like all PPS have said, it's a rare occurrence and lots of people are injured so, for once, I think it's rightfully bought to our attention.

Won't be taking my seatbelt off at all. I'm looking at booking myself on a fear of flying type of course.

I don't bat an eyelid when I'm driving long distance in the car. Perhaps it's because I feel more in control in a car. In a plane, there's nowhere to go but thousands of feet down!

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.

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.

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!

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.

This

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/

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.

Why were people's ears bleeding then?

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.