‘Everything happened really in a flash’: How one man stayed safe amid extreme turbulence on SIA flight SQ321. When Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 was en route to Bangkok for an emergency landing, Mr. Dzafran Azmir had no idea how badly his fellow passengers were injured.
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Malaysian student Dzafran Azmir kept his seatbelt fastened throughout his Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore, even though everything was going smoothly. Despite the seatbelt sign being off and the flight crew serving food, Dzafran remained buckled up. “I think people just relax in such situations. I just don’t unbuckle when the sign says you can. I just leave it on,” he shared with CNA938 on Wednesday (May 22).
This precaution meant the 28-year-old emerged unscathed when SQ321 hit a severe patch of turbulence on Tuesday, causing unbuckled passengers to be violently thrown to the ceiling and back down. Tragically, 73-year-old British passenger Geoff Kitchen, known for his community service, died during the flight. Suvarnabhumi Airport’s general manager, Kittipong Kittikachorn, indicated that a heart attack was the likely cause of death.
Mr. Dzafran, now back home in Malaysia for his summer break, compared the turbulence to being on the “crest or precipice of a really tall roller coaster.”
“You know that anticipation of going up? At that point, I felt the need to brace myself, holding onto my seatbelt to secure myself,” he explained on CNA’s Singapore Tonight on Wednesday. “When the plane started pulling up and then dipping down, that’s when everything became really chaotic.”
Initially, Mr. Dzafran thought it was just regular turbulence and expected the plane to ride through it. However, the situation quickly escalated as the plane began shaking more violently.
“The unsecured passengers were thrown straight to the top of the cabin, hitting the overhead luggage compartments, lights, and oxygen mask compartments,” he recalled.
“Then, they were slamming straight down on the armrests, hitting their backs, hitting their heads on something,” Mr. Dzafran recounted. “Everything happened really in a flash,” he added, noting that people immediately started gasping and screaming.
When the turbulence subsided, there was an announcement acknowledging the incident and a call for medical professionals to volunteer and check on the passengers.
“A couple of people answered the call and made some rounds to provide basic triage,” Mr. Dzafran said.
Amid the chaos and confusion, Mr. Dzafran mentioned, “The passengers were told to sit down and hang tight, but at the same time, I felt that people couldn’t really absorb what was to be prioritized or what was happening.”
Mr. Dzafran mentioned that among those who were unharmed, many were frantically searching for their phones that had been forcefully ripped out of their hands during the turbulence. This urgent search was driven by their need to contact their loved ones. After some time, Mr. Dzafran also managed to locate his phone amid the commotion.
