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A Singapore Airlines flight carrying more than 200 passengers including 23 Kiwis hit severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean and descended 6000ft (around 1800m) in about three minutes, the carrier has said. A British man died and authorities said dozens of passengers were injured, some severely. The Singapore Airlines service SQ321 also operates in a code share agreement with Air New Zealand under the flight number NZ3321.

An airport official said the 73-year-old man who died may have had a heart attack, though that has not yet been confirmed. He has been named in the British press as Geoffrey Ralph Kitchen. According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph , Kitchen was travelling with his wife of more than 50 years, Linda.



She is in hospital. Images have emerged from inside SQ321 after hitting severe turbulence while enroute to Singapore, killing one passenger. https://t.

co/sPhFfVr1Tb pic.twitter.com/IngvtijtAD The Singapore Airlines Boeing 777, which departed from London’s Heathrow airport for Singapore with 211 passengers and 18 crew members aboard, was diverted and landed in stormy weather in Bangkok.

A statement from the airline posted on social media lists the nationalities of those onboard as follows: 56 from Australia, 23 from New Zealand, 2 from Canada, 1 from Germany, 3 from India, 2 from Indonesia, 1 from Iceland, 4 from Ireland, 1 from Israel, 16 from Malaysia, 2 from Myanmar, 5 from the Philippines, 41 from Singapore, 1 from South Korea, 2 from Spain, 47 from the United.

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