SINGAPORE Airlines confirmed on Wednesday that five Filipinos were in the flight where a British man died and over 70 others were injured amid severe turbulence on May 21, Tuesday.
The airline said the Boeing 777-300ER carried 211 passengers and 18 crew on board.
It confirmed the nationality of the affected passengers: five from the Philippines, 56 from Australia, two from Canada, one from Germany, three from India, two from Indonesia, one from Iceland, four from Ireland, one from Israel, 16 from Malaysia, two from Myanmar, 23 from New Zealand, 41 from Singapore, one from South Korea, two from Spain, 47 from the United Kingdom, and four from the United States.
Singapore Airlines said flight SQ321 had taken off from London’s Heathrow Airport and “encountered sudden extreme turbulence” over Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Basin.
According to aviation tracking service Flightradar24’s initial analysis, the London to Singapore flight experienced over a minute of extreme turbulence at around 11,300 meters over Myanmar, during which it violently rose and plunged several times.
The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, then had a sharp, controlled descent and diverted to Bangkok in Thailand for an emergency landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
The plane touched down at 3:45 p.m., and emergency vehicles raced onto the tarmac with lights flashing and sirens blaring.
“At 3:35 p.m., the airport received a distress call from the Singapore Airlines flight saying there were passengers on board injured by turbulence, and requesting an emergency landing,” Suvarnabhumi Airport said in a statement. “The plane landed at the airport and the medical team was sent to treat all the injured.”
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