An aviation expert has called for the interior materials in commercial aircraft to be "rethought" after violent turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight left 71 people hospitalised.
Flight SQ321, a Boeing 777-300ER, had been travelling from London to Singapore when it hit what is understood to be a patch of severe turbulence as it approached Myanmar. The flight was subsequently diverted to Bangkok, Thailand.
There were 211 passengers - 23 of whom were from New Zealand - and 18 crew onboard, with 104 people hospitalised, including three Kiwis. Twenty people, including a Kiwi, are fighting for their lives in ICU.
One man, a Briton aged 73, died.
Speaking to AM on Thursday morning, Irene King, the general manager of Ardmore Flying School, said while aircraft are put through rigorous G-force testing to ensure the exteriors can withstand severe turbulence, the interiors - often hard shells - offer "no forgiveness" and can exacerbate passengers' injuries.
"You see how robust the outer shell of the aircraft is - internally, I think there will be a bit of rethinking about the materials they use inside... clearly, in these very violent situations, the materials fracture and add to the injuries, as opposed to prevention," King told AM co-host Lloyd Burr.
"These are very hard shells in the interiors - there is no forgiveness. You end up with these really significant injuries.
"I really feel for the cabin crew, they are the most at risk, and there's really nothing you can do, you can't predict it. They're up, moving about, usually much more than the passengers... Flight attendants are going about their normal day, then all of a sudden - it literally is 'boom'.
"For passengers, there is only one message: strap up, all the time. It doesn't have to be tight, but keep yourself strapped in. Don't think just because it looks nice outside that it'll be smooth flying."
King added that while radars on the aircraft can detect weather events such as thunderstorms and heavy rain, there isn't any technology onboard to identify turbulence ahead of time.
"This is really tricky stuff - you simply cannot detect it, there's no technology on the aircraft to detect it," she said. "From what I understand 34 percent of all injuries onboard today are caused by some form of turbulence."
She added that the area the flight travelled through is known for its instability and often sees extreme turbulence.
"Clear-air turbulence has been around forever, it's part of mother nature. We have some idea of where it occurs - it's not as severe everywhere - but it's just the way everything converges when you have unstable systems. There was a lot of instability and thunderstorms around that had been detected - you tend to fly through the clear air, but that still has lots of traps in it."
The main takeaway? Always, always wear your seatbelt.
Watch the interview above.
