Singapore Airlines has changed its in-flight seatbelt rules and altered at least one flight route after a turbulence incident this week killed one person and left dozens critically injured, according to the airline and flight data.
The airline is adopting a more cautious approach to turbulence, including not serving hot drinks or meals when the seatbelt sign is on, it said in a statement to local broadcaster Channel News Asia.
“SIA will continue to review our processes as the safety of our passengers and crew is of utmost importance,” it said.
Singapore investigators have started examining data obtained from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, Singapore Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said on Friday.
The daily London to Singapore route SQ321 has completed two flights since the incident without flying over the part of Myanmar where the sudden turbulence occurred about three hours before scheduled landing. The flight time is about the same, tracking data show.
They flew instead over the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, route data from flight tracker FlightRadar 24 showed.
Singapore Airlines has said the plane on Tuesday encountered sudden extreme turbulence and a 73-year-old British passenger died of a suspected heart attack.
Photographs from inside the plane showed gashes in the overhead cabin panels, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling and luggage strewn around. A passenger said some people’s heads had slammed into the lights above the seats and broken the panels.
As of late Thursday, 48 passengers and two crew members were hospitalised in Bangkok, while 19 others were still in the city, the airline said.
Twenty of the 48 remained in intensive care, an official at Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital said on Thursday, adding that the injured had a mix of spinal cord, brain and skull injuries.
Technological advances have helped limit the number of turbulence-related fatalities, which have significantly decreased in the past 20 years.
But a spate of turbulence reports has triggered a debate over whether climate change may be causing it.
A report from the University of Reading last year suggested turbulence could worsen with climate change.
Professor Paul Williams, one of the authors, has said more research is needed to understand the impact of climate change on air turbulence. — Reuters
