Singapore Airlines: British man dies in severe turbulence as flight from London Heathrow forced to land in Bangkok
A 73-year-old British man has died from a suspected heart attack after turbulence on a London-Singapore flight.
Dozens more have been injured after passengers described people being “launched into the ceiling” and overhead lockers.
Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from Heathrow was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
Seven people have serious head injuries and others have minor wounds, said the head of the Thailand airport.
The aircraft took off at 10.38pm UK time on Monday but diverted to Bangkok, landing at 3.45pm local time on Tuesday.
Oxygen masks were left dangling from the ceiling. Pic: Reuters
Some passengers were taken into ambulances on stretchers. Pic Reuters
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Passenger Dzafran Azmir, 28, described chaos as the turbulence hit.
“Suddenly the aircraft starts tilting up and there was shaking so I started bracing for what was happening,” he said.
“And very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop so everyone seated and not wearing seatbelts was launched immediately into the ceiling.”
“Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it,” he added.
“They hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it.”
Briton Andrew Davies told Sky News “anyone who had a seatbelt on isn’t injured”.
He said the seatbelt sign came on, but there was no time for crew to take their seats.
Mr Davies said “every single cabin crew person I saw was injured in some way or another, maybe with a gash on their head… One had a bad back, who was in obvious pain.”
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Emergency services surround plane on tarmac
Kittipong Kittikachorn, head of Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, told reporters a British man, 73, had died from probable cardiac arrest.
He said about 30 people were injured, including at least one crew member, and that many passengers couldn’t walk and had to be helped from the aircraft
It’s believed the sudden turbulence hit while people were being served breakfast, the airport boss added.
Mr Kittikachorn blamed an “air pocket” for the incident.
He said the dead man’s wife was with him at hospital and that some people with minor injuries had already been discharged.
The UK Foreign Office said it was “in contact with the local authorities” over the incident.
The Boeing 777-300ER was forced to land in Bangkok. Pic: Pongsak Suksi/Reuters
Flight tracking data showed the plane cruising at 37,000ft (11,280m) before dropping 6,000ft (1,830m) in around three minutes.
However, a spokesperson for FlightRadar24 said this appeared to “just be a flight level change in preparation for landing”.
There were 211 passengers and 18 crew on the plane, a Boeing 777-300ER.
Social media video showed ambulances surrounding the aircraft on the tarmac.
“Singapore Airlines offers its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased,” the company said in a statement.
“We deeply apologise for the traumatic experience that our passengers and crew members suffered on this flight.”
It said it was working with Thai authorities and sending a team to Bangkok to help.
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Singapore is considered a standard-setter for the aviation industry and consistently tops airline awards.
Turbulence-related injuries are the most common type on passenger planes, according to a study by the US National Transportation Safety Board.
It found it was responsible for more than a third of accidents between 2009 and 2018, but no aircraft damage.
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Zoe Ball is leaving her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show after six years.
The 53-year-old, who recently lost her mother to cancer, will present her last show on Friday, 20 December.
Ball leaves Wogan House with her replacement, Scott Mills. Pic: PA
She said she was leaving to focus on family, but will remain part of the Radio 2 team and will give further details next year.
Announcing the news on her Tuesday show, she said: “After six years of fun times alongside you all on the breakfast show, I’ve decided it’s time to step away from the early alarm call and start a new chapter.
“You know I think the world of you all, listeners, and it truly has been such a privilege to share the mornings with you, to go through life’s little ups and downs, we got through the lockdown together, didn’t we?
“We’ve shared a hell of a lot, the good times, the tough times, there’s been a lot of laughter. And I am going to miss you cats.”
Scott Mills will replace Ball on the breakfast show following her departure next month.
“Zoe and I have been such good friends now for over 25 years and have spent much of that time as part of the same radio family here at Radio 2 and also on Radio 1,” he said.
“She’s done an incredible job on this show over the past six years, and I am beyond excited to be handed the baton.”
Hugging outside the BBC building on the day of the announcement, Ball said she was “really chuffed for my mate and really excited about it”.
Ball was the first female host of both the BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows, starting at the Radio 1 breakfast show in 1998, and taking over her current Radio 2 role from Chris Evans in 2020 after he left the show.
She took a break from hosting her show over the summer, returning in September.
Ahead of her stint in radio, Ball – who is the daughter of children’s presenter Johnny Ball – co-hosted the BBC’s Saturday morning children’s magazine show Live & Kicking alongside Jamie Theakston for three years from 1996.
She has two children, Woody and Nelly, with her ex-husband, DJ and musician Norman Cook, known professionally as Fatboy Slim.
Ball said in her announcement her last show towards the end of December will be “just in time for Christmas with plenty of fun and shenanigans”.
“While I’m stepping away from the Breakfast Show, I’m not disappearing entirely – I’ll still be a part of the Radio 2 family, with more news in the New Year,” she added.
“I’m excited to embrace my next chapter, including being a mum in the mornings, and I can’t wait to tune in on the school run!”
Helen Thomas, head of Radio 2, said: “Zoe has woken up the nation on Radio 2 with incredible warmth, wit and so much joy since January 2019, and I’d like to thank her for approaching each show with as much vim and vigour as if it were her first. I’m thrilled that she’ll remain an important part of the Radio 2 family.”
Mills, 51, got his first presenting role aged just 16 for a local station in Hampshire, and went on to present in Bristol and Manchester, before joining BBC Radio 1 in 1998.
He’s previously worked as a cover presenter on Radio 2, but this is his first permanent role on the station.
UK
More prisoners are being transferred to less secure jails to tackle overcrowding crisis, Sky News understands
The prison service is starting to recategorise the security risk of offenders to ease capacity pressures, Sky News understands.
It involves lowering or reconsidering the threshold of certain offenders to move them from the closed prison estate (category A to C) to the open estate (category D) because there are more free cell spaces there.
Examples of this could include discounting adjudications – formal hearings when a prisoner is accused of breaking the rules – for certain offenders, so they don’t act as official reasons not to transport them to a lower-security jail.
Prisoners are also categorised according to an Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) status. There are different levels – basic, standard and enhanced – based on how they keep to the rules or display a commitment to rehabilitation.
Usually ‘enhanced’ prisoners take part in meaningful activity – employment and training – making them eligible among other factors, to be transferred to the open estate.
Insiders suggest this system in England and Wales is being rejigged so that greater numbers of ‘standard’ prisoners can transfer, whereas before it would more typically be those with ‘enhanced’ status.
Open prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend time on day release away from the prison on license conditions to carry out work or education.
The aim is to help reintegrate them back into society once they leave. As offenders near the end of their sentence, they are housed in open prisons.
Many of those released as part of the early release scheme in October after serving 40% of their sentence were freed from open prisons.
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Overcrowding in UK prisons
They were the second tranche of offenders freed as part of this scheme, and had been sentenced to five years or more.
Despite early release measures, prisons are still battling a chronic overcrowding crisis. The male estate is almost full, operating at around 97% capacity.
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Sky News understands there continue to be particular pinch points across the country.
Southwest England struggled over the weekend with three space-related ‘lockouts’ – which means prisoners are held in police suites or transferred to other jails because there is no space.
One inmate is believed to have been transported from Exeter to Cardiff.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new government inherited a prison system on the point of collapse. We took the necessary action to stop our prisons from overflowing and to protect the public.
“This is not a new scheme. Only less-serious offenders who meet a strict criteria are eligible, and the Prison Service can exclude anyone who can’t be managed safely in a category D prison.”
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