May 22nd - What could change following the tragic result of turbulence to Singapore Airlines flight SQ321?
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2024
⏱️ 6 minutes
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Summary
Yesterday, the world was shocked by the news that a passenger had died following extreme turbulence on Singapore Airlines flight SQ321. The very sad episode was a reminder of the threat that turbulence can unfortunately have upon all flights - but can airlines do anything to mitigate the effects of such events?
I take a look at what the industry guidelines currently are, and what may have to change to improve safety during moments of turbulence.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. |
| 0:08.3 | It's Wednesday the 22nd of May and very sadly as you will have been hearing we have learned about the identity of the 73 year old man Jeff Kin, who died tragically on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ321, |
| 0:26.9 | which on Tuesday morning was hit by extreme turbulence while flying over Myanmar in Southeast Asia. |
| 0:36.5 | The plane was on a routine flight from London to Singapore and, well, it wasn't expecting, |
| 0:45.4 | obviously, the turbulence. |
| 0:47.1 | Details seemed to me as though, well, 211 people on board plus 18 crew. |
| 0:54.0 | They were just having breakfast as normal. And of course, cabin |
| 0:59.5 | crew, most of them on their feet working. Passengers would have been getting up using the |
| 1:05.7 | washrooms as the flight got past the 12 hour mark. And all points of view have been a busy time on board |
| 1:15.9 | the last time you would ever want to hit turbulence not that there's ever a good time |
| 1:22.7 | what can we learn from this and what will change? Well, the investigators who are already on the site in Bangkok to where the flight was diverted |
| 1:33.7 | will, of course, be looking at everything. |
| 1:37.4 | The cockpit voice reporter, for instance, I'm sure they will be listening to. |
| 1:42.1 | They will be looking at the circumstances, the weather reports for the time, and trying to find out, well, what caused this very, very severe turbulence. |
| 1:54.9 | Now, there's some reports saying that it dropped 6,000 feet. That is not the case. Yes, once the turbulence had happened, the pilots took a quick |
| 2:05.3 | decision that they were going to divert to Bangkok and they began a fairly swift descent in order to get |
| 2:14.2 | to the Thai capital. But nonetheless, very distressing, very upsetting to be on board |
| 2:22.4 | and the loss of life is just awful. How are things change I have been trying to figure out? |
| 2:30.9 | And I think just as you will probably not be old enough to remember when it wasn't |
| 2:37.5 | compulsory to wear seatbelts in cars. I think it will just be assumed that you should keep |
| 2:45.9 | your seatbelt tightly fastened as in a car all the time that you are seated on a flight. It just makes sense. |
| 2:56.1 | The, yes, a thousand flights you could take and you probably wouldn't ever need it. But for those |
... |
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