Be prepared for turbulence
Despite two recent incidents of severe turbulence, one leading to the death of a 73-year-old passenger, flying remains very safe.
“For your comfort and safety, we recommend that you keep your seat belt loosely fastened at all times.”
Regular flyers will recognise this friendly reminder from aircraft crew – even if we sometimes ignore it. After two recent incidents of severe turbulence, one of them ending in a fatality, perhaps we’ll all pay more attention to the announcements and keep buckled up in future.
On 21 May, Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 made an emergency landing in Bangkok after the aircraft hit turbulence over southern Myanmar on its way from London to Singapore.
British man Geoff Kitchen, 73, was among passengers and crew affected when the Boeing 777-300ER suddenly dropped 75 feet (nearly 23 metres) before flying up 200 feet, then dropping and rising sharply again.
It is believed Mr Kitchen died of a heart attack brought on by the ordeal. Others sustained injuries by hitting the ceiling of the plane or other objects that flew around the cabin, including items being used to serve breakfast.
The plane was diverted to Bangkok, where it was met by emergency services and a triage team, who assessed the injured passengers and sent them to hospital.
Earlier this week, Singapore Airlines reported that 40 passengers and one crew member were still receiving medical treatment in Bangkok.
The airline said it was cooperating with investigators and organising onward travel for people affected by the incident.
On Sunday, 26 May, six passengers and six crew members were injured when a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin hit turbulence over Türkiye.
Twelve passengers were injured, with eight of them taken to hospital when the plane landed in Ireland. Passengers later described the turbulence as “atrocious”.
These were not the first recorded incidents, nor will they be the last.
In March 2023, several people were injured from turbulence experienced by a Lufthansa flight between Texas and Frankfurt, and in December 2020, a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Phoenix was struck by severe turbulence near Honolulu.
While pilots can recognise and avoid some forms of turbulence – or at least warn passengers and cabin crew that it’s coming up – “clear air” turbulence can happen at any time with little or no warning.
The CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, Hassan Shahidi, told CBS News this “very violent” phenomenon typically occurs at altitudes between 23,000 and 39,000 feet above sea level.
Researcher Dr Paul Williams, from the University of Reading in England, has linked clear air turbulence to climate change, and has predicted an increase in the number of incidents in coming years.
“But it’s not an absolute certainty that we know what is going to be encountered from time to time.”
While inquiries are ongoing, anecdotal evidence from the Singapore Airlines incident suggests that those passengers and crew who suffered injuries were either standing in the aisles or sitting without their seat belts fastened.
Dr Williams explained that, in severe turbulence, the vertical motion of a plane will exceed the pull of gravity.
“What that means is that if you’re not seat belted, by definition, you’ll become a projectile, you’re a catapult, you will lift up out of your seat,” he told The New York Times.
The good news is that airline safety standards are improving all the time, and overall death and injury rates are at their lowest since commercial aviation began.
According to the United States Federal Aviation Administration, only 163 people were seriously injured by turbulence between 2009 and 2022 — on average, less than 12 people a year.
In a 2020 study, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Arnold Barnett concluded that it had never been safer to fly. Between 2008 and 2017, there was just one fatality for every 7.9 million aircraft passengers.
“The risk is so low that being afraid to fly is a little like being afraid to go into the supermarket because the ceiling might collapse,” Mr Barnett said.
Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to get travel insurance to protect yourself and your belongings while travelling.
Related reading: ABC, ABC 2, The Conversation, NSA, MIT, CBS, NY Times
