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Singapore Airlines turbulence incident: Investigation continues one year later

Singapore Airlines turbulence incident: Investigation continues one year later
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Singapore Airlines | Simple Flying

More than a year after the turbulence incident involving a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER, the Singaporean authorities have provided an update on their ongoing investigation. The flight from London to Singapore encountered severe turbulence, resulting in one fatality due to a heart attack.

The Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) of Singapore announced that components of the aircraft's weather radar system have been sent to the United States for examination and testing. "Components of the aircraft’s weather radar system have been sent for examination and tests in the US. The component examination and test report detailing the findings is still pending. The TSIB will make public its Final Report upon completion of the investigation," stated TSIB.

The preliminary findings were published on May 29th, 2024, revealing that data had been extracted from both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. According to these findings, as Flight SQ321 flew over southern Myanmar on May 21st, 2024, it likely cruised above an area with developing convective activity. This led to slight vibrations with vertical accelerations fluctuating between positive 0.44G and 1.57G for about 19 seconds.

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During this time, there was an uncommanded increase in altitude to 37,362 feet before being corrected by autopilot back down to 37,000 feet. Pilots observed an increase in airspeed and responded by deploying speed brakes before descending further after about 17 minutes.

The TSIB noted that injuries were most likely caused by rapid changes in gravitational forces experienced during turbulence when vertical acceleration shifted dramatically within seconds. After assessing passenger injuries reported by flight attendants, pilots diverted to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Following storage at Bangkok and two months at Singapore Changi Airport, the aircraft returned to service on July 27th, 2024. It has since resumed operations including flights between major international airports such as Beijing Capital International Airport and New York John F. Kennedy International Airport via Frankfurt.

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