Passengers on Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 endured 19 seconds of extreme turbulence that included a drop of 178 feet in just 4.6 seconds – representing a vertical speed of 26mph. “This sequence of events likely caused the injuries to the crew and passengers,” say investigators.
The Boeing 777 had departed from London Heathrow the previous day on a routine flight to Singapore . As it was flying south of Myanmar at 37,000 feet on 21 May, it hit violent turbulence. A 73-year-old British man, Geoff Kitchen, died of a heart attack during the incident.
Other passengers and crew were injured, some of them seriously. Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) has now issued its Preliminary Investigation Findings of Incident Involving SQ321 . The investigation team comprises TSIB investigators and US representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing.
They extracted the information stored in the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of flight SQ321. The inflight drama began at 7.49am GMT as the plane flew through “an area of developing convective activity”.
The aircraft was on autopilot. The report says: “An uncommanded increase in aircraft altitude, reaching a peak of 37,362 feet, was recorded. In response to this uncommanded altitude increase, the autopilot pitched the aircraft downwards to descend back to the selected altitude of 37,000 feet.
“In addition, the .
