The Singapore Airlines flight that last week encountered severe
turbulence that led to the death of one man might have been in a place where
others are calling a danger zone.
A former pilot said the flight may have gone into what is known as the Intertropical
Convergence Zone (ICZ), a place near the equator where winds from the north and
south meet according to the NASA Earth Observatory. The convergence of high
heat and humidity can
create acute thunderstorms.
"With turbulence of such magnitude, it is likely the Singapore
Airlines flight was navigating through difficult thunderstorms," Marco
Chan, a former commercial pilot and aviation lecturer at Buckinghamshire New
University, told the Wall Street Journal.
The turbulence was so bad a 28-year-old student said he saw "people
from across the aisle going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and
landing back down in really awkward positions. … Everyone seated and not
wearing a seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling, some people hit
their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it, they hit the places
where lights and masks are and broke straight through it. … The crew and people
inside lavatories were hurt the most because we discovered people just on the
ground not able to get up. There were a lot of spinal and head injuries."
The flight had to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
An elderly man died of a heart attack.
Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong said "On behalf of Singapore
Airlines, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and
loved ones of the deceased."
Although
flying is considered the safest mode of transportation, there
are still several turbulent areas out there.
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