Shaken passengers arrive in Singapore

陈小将

SINGAPORE — More than 140 passengers and crew members from a Singapore Airlines flight hit by heavy turbulence that left dozens injured and one dead finally reached Singapore on a relief flight on Wednesday morning after an emergency landing in Bangkok.

The scheduled London-Singapore Flight 321 on a Boeing 777-300ER plane diverted to Bangkok after the plane was buffeted by turbulence that flung passengers and crew around the cabin, slamming some into the ceiling.

A 73-year-old British passenger died of a suspected heart attack, and at least 30 people were injured.

"I saw people from across the aisle going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and landing back down, in, like really awkward positions. People, like, getting massive gashes in the head, concussions," Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student onboard the flight, told Reuters after arriving in Singapore.

Photographs from the interior of the plane showed gashes in the overhead cabin panels, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling and luggage strewn around. A passenger said some people's heads had slammed into the lights above the seats and broken the panels.

Singapore Airlines took 131 passengers and 12 crew members on the relief flight from Bangkok, which reached Singapore just before 5 am. There were 211 passengers, including many Australians, British and Singaporeans, and 18 crew members onboard the original flight. The injured and their families remained in Bangkok.