The airline said in a statement that an additional five passengers who were on board the SQ321 flight will return to Singapore on Wednesday, and one crew member is set to return on Thursday.
The scheduled London-Singapore flight was diverted to Bangkok after the plane was buffeted by turbulence that flung passengers and crew around the cabin, slamming some into the ceiling. A 73-year-old British passenger died of a suspected heart attack.
“I saw people from across the aisle going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and landing back down in like really awkward positions. People, like, getting massive gashes in the head, concussions,” Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board the flight said after arriving in Singapore.
Photographs from the interior of the plane showed gashes in the overhead cabin panels, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling and luggage strewn around. A passenger said some people’s heads had slammed into the lights above the seats and punctured the panels.
Singapore Airlines took 131 passengers and 12 crew on the relief flight from Bangkok that reached Singapore just before 5 a.m. (2100 GMT). There were 211 passengers including many Australians, British and Singaporeans, and 18 crew on board the original flight; injured fliers and their families remained in Bangkok.
“On behalf of Singapore Airlines, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased,” Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong said in a video message.
Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) is looking into the incident, and the US National Transportation Safety Board is also sending representatives for support.
The plane encountered sudden extreme turbulence, Goh said, and the pilot then declared a medical emergency and diverted to Bangkok.
Aircraft tracking provider FlightRadar 24 said at around 0749 GMT the flight encountered “a rapid change in vertical rate, consistent with a sudden turbulence event,” based on flight tracking data.
“There were thunderstorms, some severe, in the area at the time,” it said.
The sudden turbulence occurred over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar about 10 hours into the flight, the airline said. Turbulence has many causes, most obviously the unstable weather patterns that trigger storms, but this flight could have been affected by clear air turbulence, which is very difficult to detect.
Turbulence-related airline accidents are the most common type of accident, according to a 2021 NTSB study.
While the airline said 30 people were injured, Samitivej Hospital in Thailand said it was treating 71 passengers.
The head of Singapore Airlines has apologised after a flight on Tuesday was hit by "severe extreme turbulence", killing one person and injuring dozens.
Goh Choon Phong said the airline was "very sorry for the traumatic experience" for those onboard flight SQ321 from London to Singapore.
The flight was forced to make an emergency landing in the Thai capital Bangkok.
Smitivej Hospital, in Bangkok, said 104 people were treated and 58 remain in hospital, 20 of whom are in the intensive care unit.
There are 15 Britons still being treated in hospital, with six in intensive care, the hospital said.
A relief flight carrying the remaining passengers and crew members arrived in Singapore early on Wednesday.
The plane, which had 211 passengers and 18 crew members onboard, hit severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean and dropped more than 6,000 feet (1800m) in three minutes.
In a video statement on Wednesday, Mr Goh said the airline was "fully cooperating with relevant authorities on the investigations".
He also expressed his condolences to the family of the victim, adding that they would "render all possible assistance" to affected passengers and crew members.
Mr Goh added that the plane was 10 hours into its journey and flying over the Irrawaddy Basin at an altitude of 37,000 feet when it encountered the turbulence.
A 73-year-old Briton, Geoff Kitchen, died of a suspected heart attack during the flight, while several others remain in a critical condition.
Mr Kitchen was believed to be on board the flight with his wife, with the pair headed to Singapore to start a six-week holiday, said media reports.
Andrew Davies, a British passenger onboard the Boeing 777-300ER, told the BBC's Radio 5 that the plane "suddenly dropped... [with] very little warning", adding that he recalled seeing a woman with an "awful gash on her head", while another was heard "screaming in agony".
Another passenger said those not wearing seatbelts were "launched immediately into the ceiling".
"I saw people from across the aisle just going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and landing back down in really awkward positions. People getting massive gashes in the head concussions," Dzafran Azmir told Reuters.
Mr Azmir added that people's heads had slammed into the overhead panels above the seats and "pushed through" some of the panels.According to the Montreal Convention, all airlines are strictly liable for damage caused by death or injury of passengers.
However, airlines can limit their liability by showing that the passengers might have borne some of the fault for the injury, such as by ignoring instructions to wear their seatbelts, Mike Danko, a California attorney told Reuters news agency.
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sent his "deepest condolences" to the family and loved ones of the deceased, adding that Singapore was "working closely with Thai authorities".
He also said Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau would conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.
Accidents involving Singapore Airlines are rare, with the carrier consistently ranking among the world's safest.
The last fatal accident occurred in 2000, when a Boeing 747 crashed while attempting to take off from the wrong runway at a Taiwan airport.
Some 83 people of the 179 people onboard were killed.
From 2009 through 2018, the US agency found that turbulence accounted for more than a third of reported airline accidents and most resulted in one or more serious injuries, but no aircraft damage.
Singapore Airlines, which is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading airlines and is a benchmark for much of the industry, has not had any major incidents in recent years.
Its last accident resulting in casualties was a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei, where it crashed on Oct. 31, 2000 at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, killing 83 of the 179 people on board.
