Singapore Airlines ranked because the No. 2 international airline, in line with the Bounce 2023 report.
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Singapore Airlines altered its in-flight seatbelt rules and adjusted no less than one flight route following Tuesday’s turbulence incident that led to an emergency landing in Bangkok.
The airline will now not provide hot drink and meal services when the seatbelt sign is on as a part of its recent, “more cautious approach” to turbulence, it said in an announcement to CNBC.
“SIA will proceed to review our processes, as the security of our passengers and crew is of utmost importance,” it said.
The airline added that crew will proceed to secure loose items and equipment and advise passengers to return to their seats and wear their seatbelts.
The inside of Singapore Airline flight SQ321 is pictured after an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Thailand on May 21, 2024.
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Tuesday’s SQ321 London-Singapore Boeing 777-300ER flight, carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew, was forced to divert to Bangkok after it encountered severe turbulence over Myanmar, causing passengers and crew to be thrown across the cabin.
The each day route has since remained in service, but flight data shows it has diverted away from a part of Myanmar where the turbulence occurred.
In accordance with Flightradar 24, the airline’s two accomplished flights for the reason that incident have flown south of Myanmar, over the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The airline didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment on the alterations.
A 73-year-old British man died of a suspected heart attack during Tuesday’s incident. An extra 104 passengers were injured, a press officer for Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital told the Associated Press.
As of Thursday, around 20 passengers remained in intensive care with head and spinal injuries, the director of the hospital said in a press conference, according to the AP. Singapore Airlines said in a separate statement that a complete of 44 passengers and two crew remain within the hospital.
Turbulence-related incidents are essentially the most common style of accident suffered by business airlines, in line with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. This covers major U.S. airlines, in addition to cargo aircraft and regional carriers.
Severe injuries from turbulence are rare, nevertheless, with 163 cases recorded between 2009 and 2022, 129 of them crew members, in line with the NTSB.
The Aviation Safety Network has recorded seven incidents for Singapore Airlines, last logging accident fatalities for certainly one of the corporate’s flights in October 2000, when 83 people were killed when the plane crashed into construction equipment at Taipei’s predominant airport.
— CNBC’s Sophie Kiderlin contributed to this report.
