A succession of severe turbulence incidents affecting commercial airline operations continued this Monday, only days after the May 21st in-flight-turbulence experienced aboard a Singapore Airline Boeing 777-300ER. While a 73-years old passenger aboard the Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore passed away following a suspected heart attack, the three latest incidents that took place on Sunday May 26th and Mondays May 27th only claimed injuries..
The most significant incident took place on Sunday May 26th when a Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner operating the Doha-Dublin route as flight QR 017 reportedly encountered violent turbulences while cruising. The incident occurred as the aircraft, having flown for almost two hours was crossing Turkish airspace speeding at 480 knots (552 kmh) at an altitude of 36,000 feet altitude. As in witness accounts gathered from passengers who had experienced the May 21st incident aboard the Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER flight, flyers aboard the Qatar Airways Boeing 787-9 aircraft confirmed seeing ‘weightless’ people being flown against the aircraft cabin’s ceiling, with foods and drinks flying everywhere inside the plane. The flight which was allowed to continue towards its destination arrived in Dublin where it landed safely at 01:30 pm. In all, twelve people had been injured and were taken to various hospitals there. Among the victims were six crew members who heroically continued to perform their duties for the rest of the flight, despite visible signs of injuries.
In addition to the Qatar Airways flight over Turkish Airspace, two other incidents also took place on Monday with both flights involving aircraft flown by Turkish Airlines.
In the first incident, a Turkish Airline Airbus A321 connecting Istanbul to Izmir as flight TK 2320 encountered turbulences which violently sent one flight attendant through the cabin’s ceiling before landing very hard on the floor. The flight attendant who, reportedly had only began working as a flight attendant two months ago was evacuated to a hospital after the aircraft landed safely, apparently suffering a broken backbone. The second incident saw a Turkish Airline Airbus A319 flying from Istanbul to Igdir being diverted to Erzurum after hail encountered in flight damaged the aircraft radome. No injuries had been reported aboard the Airbus A319.
In the aftermath of the May 21st incident involving the Singapore Airline Boeing 777-300ER, responding energetically to the incident, the airline temporarely restricted its aircraft en route to London from over flying Myanmar where the incident had taken place. Instead, a route over the Bay of bengal was identified. Policies governing the use of seat belts and warning signs ordering passengers to fasten their seat belts were modified.