Singapore Airlines turbulence: ‘very freak’ incident for flight SQ321, with probe expected to last up to 9 months

Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 encountered “very freak” turbulence and investigation findings are expected to take up to nine months, but the goal is not to “apportion blame”, industry experts say.

A retired Singapore Airlines pilot with more than 30 years of flying experience – including with Boeing 777-300ER planes, the model involved in the incident – told This Week in Asia on Wednesday that he had not encountered a similar degree of turbulence as in the latest incident, which left one passenger dead and 30 others injured.

Since the news of the incident broke, photos of the plane interior – showing food strewn across the floor, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling and luggage scattered around – have been widely circulated across social media.

“I have been through some bad turbulence before but nothing like this. The aircraft will shake a bit but not be damaged internally,” said the former pilot, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The scheduled London-Singapore flight on a Boeing 777-300ER made an emergency landing in Bangkok on Tuesday after it encountered sudden extreme turbulence over Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Basin, according to the airline.

A 73-year-old British passenger died from a suspected heart attack, while several passengers had to be carried out of the plane on stretchers. Among the injured, seven are in critical condition, according to Thai airport authorities.

The flight had 211 passengers and 18 crew members.

Data posted by Flightradar24 on social media shows SQ321 had a “significant rapid change in vertical rate” at about 7.49am UTC. This includes the aircraft plummeting from about 37,900 feet to 35,200 feet in six seconds.

Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong said in a video message on Wednesday