‘Thrown to the roof and then to the floor’: SQ321 passengers describe chaos on turbulence-hit flight

May 23, 2024

SINGAPORE – A passenger on board Singapore Airlines (SIA) Flight SQ321 on May 21 had just taken off his seatbelt to use the restroom when the plane plunged without warning.

The 30-year-old was slammed into the ceiling of the cabin, before falling back near his seat.

“I hit my neck and my back,” the passenger told The Straits Times in a phone call, recounting the moment when the plane was hit by severe turbulence on its way to Singapore from London.

The incident, which occurred about 10 hours into the flight, took place during a routine breakfast service, throwing things in the cabin, even people, everywhere.

The passenger, who requested anonymity, said his fiancee was in the restroom and saw the seatbelt sign flash for a “split second” before the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft was hit by a severe bout of turbulence.

The couple suffered head and back injuries.

He commended crew members for tending to passengers, even though most of them were bleeding or limping.

One stewardess was “holding her neck with blood oozing out, but she was still going around and helping people get medication”, he said.

“They need some medals because they were the heroes. 100 per cent,” he added.

The man, who was one of the 131 SQ321 passengers and 12 crew members who arrived in Singapore via a relief flight at 5.05am on May 22, also shared with ST that an SIA staff member offered monetary compensation to those on board the flight before it departed Bangkok.

The passenger said he received $1,000 in cash inside a white SIA envelope.

“(The staff member) said that the money was like… an apology,” he said.

When contacted, SIA said it declined to comment on matters of compensation.

The incident left a total mess in the plane, with dents in the overhead cabin panels, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling, and luggage strewn about.

Passengers told reporters they saw heads slamming into the overhead lights – in some cases, the impact was forceful enough to dent the panels.

“I saw people from across the aisle going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and landing back down in really awkward positions. People, like, getting massive gashes in the head, concussions,” passenger Dzafran Azmir, 28, told Reuters after arriving in Singapore.

The incident, which left one passenger dead and many others injured, caused the flight to be diverted to Bangkok.

There were 211 passengers on the flight, including 41 Singaporeans. The others were from countries such as Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Britain. There were also 18 crew members on board.

Passenger Drew Kessler shared on Facebook a photograph of his water bottle lodged in the ceiling of the plane.

“The picture shows my water bottle stuck in the ceiling of the airplane, next to where I hit,” he wrote in a post on May 22.

Mr Kessler, who had been travelling with his family, said he suffered a broken neck, while his wife “got the worst of it and has a broken back”.

Both are in “a lot of pain” as they wait for test results at a hospital in Bangkok, but he said the family is in “good spirits” and that his children are unharmed.

“Clearly things could have been worse, and we feel blessed,” he said.

Also on board was Singaporean Bobby Chin, a former member of the Council of Presidential Advisers. He told The Straits Times that he and his wife were both injured during the incident.

Australian Teandra Tukhunen said she was abruptly woken up when she was “thrown to the roof and then to the floor”.

Speaking to British news outlet Sky News at Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, she said the ordeal happened “pretty much immediately” after the seatbelt sign came on, leaving her with little time to fasten her seatbelt.

The 30-year-old, who had her arm in a sling, said: “It was just so quick, over in a couple of seconds, and then you’re just shocked. Everyone’s pretty freaked out… the pilots saved our lives.”

Another passenger, who was lying on a trolley in the same hospital, said: “I don’t think I’ll be flying again for a while.”

He added that the ordeal was “quite scary”.

Recounting the incident, he described hearing a loud noise before things came crashing through the ceiling, water began spilling everywhere and people started crying.

“It wasn’t a fun end to the journey,” he said. He added that he was in “a lot of pain”, and felt even worse after news of the dead passenger sank in.

SIA has since brought 131 passengers and 12 crew members to Singapore on a relief flight early in the morning of May 22.

The father of a Singaporean passenger told ST on May 22 at Singapore Changi Airport that his 22-year-old son had been on the aircraft with his girlfriend when the turbulence hit.

His son had said he was “thrown all over the place”, but was all right save for a few knocks, said the 57-year-old, who works in the logistics industry and wanted to be known only as Mr Chiew.

Mr Chiew, his wife, his son, as well as the younger Mr Chiew’s girlfriend and her loved ones were later seen embracing one another in the arrival hall, before leaving together.

The dead passenger has been identified as Mr Geoffrey Kitchen, a 73-year-old Briton. He was a retired insurance professional and musical theatre director, according to British reports.

The father-of-two and his wife, who was also on the flight and later taken to hospital, were en route to a six-week holiday and were intending to visit Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and Australia.

Thornbury Musical Theatre Group, which Mr Kitchen helped run for over 35 years, said in a Facebook post on May 21 (May 22 Singapore time) that his commitment to the group was “unquestionable”.

“Geoff was always a gentleman with the utmost honesty and integrity and always did what was right for the group,” the group said.

Were you on SQ321? If you were a passenger on the flight, we are sorry for what you have been through and hope you are safe. If you are open to speaking to us, please get in touch via e-mail at [email protected].