Reutersby Adolfo Arranz, Vijdan Mohammad Kawoosa, Sudev Kiyada, Han Huang, Mariano Zafra, Simon Scarr·May 22, 2024
The mechanics of turbulence What happened to Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 and why? One passenger died of a suspected heart attack and many others were injured after a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore hit severe turbulence on May 21, forcing the Boeing 777-300ER jet to divert to Bangkok. The sudden turbulence occurred over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar about 10 hours into the flight, the airline said. The pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the aircraft to Bangkok, it said. Aircraft tracking provider FlightRadar 24 said at about 0749 GMT the flight encountered “a rapid change in vertical rate, consistent with a sudden turbulence event”, based on flight tracking data. “There were thunderstorms, some severe, in the area at the time,” it said. Rapid movements Altitude data from FlightRadar24 shows how the aircraft was thrust up and down over the course of a minute, before returning to its original cruising altitude of 37,000 ft. During the event, the plane’s vertical speed, the rate by which the plane ascends or descends, quickly surged to 1,664 feet per minute before plummeting to -1,536 feet per minute in a matter of three seconds. What is Turbulence? Turbulence or pockets of
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