People on a Singapore Airlines flight got the scare of a lifetime when the plane went nosediving before the pilots could get control of it again. Most of the people who were on board were traumatized, and twenty of them ended up in the critical care unit.
Josh Silverstone, a passenger on the plane, spoke out: “When I got back to the airport, I couldn’t stop throwing up.” It hurt so much I couldn’t walk. He went on to say that the only reason he bought that plane internet service was to text his mom and tell her he loves her.
No one knows for sure what caused the turbulence that sent the Boeing 777 plane crashing 6,000 feet to the ground. One man on the flight died of what was probably a heart attack brought on by the event.
There were aviation inspectors in Bangkok to look into the matter, and because it involved a Boeing plane, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board sent technical advisors. Over one hundred passengers who were fit enough to go to their destination were picked up by Singapore Airlines on a special flight and taken to Changi Airport in Singapore.
Out of the almost eighty passengers and team members who stayed in Bangkok, many stayed in the hospital. Passenger Beverly Mayers wasn’t hurt, but she said it was “sheer terror.”
“The whole plane was shaking, and big pieces were falling off and hitting people in the head,” she said.
Many people think of turbulence as something that happens during storms, but the U.S. Association of Flight Attendants said that turbulence in clear air is more dangerous because it is hard to see. A group of flight attendants in the U.S. says, “One second you’re cruising smoothly; the next, passengers, crew, and unattended carts or other items are being thrown around the cabin.”
