'Heads smashed into plane's ceiling': Passengers recall deadly Singapore-bound flight ordeal

More than 140 passengers were on the chaotic Singapore Airlines flight from London, which experienced severe turbulence before making an emergency landing in Thailand.

A 28-year-old student said he saw his co-passengers flying around horizontally after the aircraft started shaking uncontrollably. People hit their heads on the plane's ceiling in awkward positions and suffered from concussions, the passenger told Reuters. One person on the plane died from a suspected heart attack.

Geoffrey Kitchen, a 73-year-old British passenger, died likely due to a heart attack on the flight, said Kittipong Kittikachorn, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, to where the SIA flight was on Tuesday diverted under emergency.

As many as 30 passengers have been receiving treatment for their injuries in hospitals in Bangkok after the Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight SQ321, operating from London (Heathrow) to Singapore on May 20 encountered "sudden extreme turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin at 37,000 feet about 10 hours after departure".

The nationalities of the passengers are as follows: 56 from Australia, three Indians, two from Canada, one from Germany, two Indonesians, one from Iceland, four from Ireland, one from Israel, 16 from Malaysia, two from Myanmar, 23 from New Zealand, five from the Philippines, 41 Singaporeans, one South Korean, two from Spain, 47 from the United Kingdom, and four from the US.

(With PTI inputs)

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