The British Airways flight returned to Singapore. Photo / 123RF
The British Airways flight returned to Singapore. Photo / 123RF
A young mother strapped her 1-year-old daughter to her chest and thought they would die when their flight was hit with severe turbulence on Friday morning.
Jade Crosland, a 31-year-old from Australia, was on British Airways flight BA12 from Singapore to Heathrow with her partner Henry Trier, 3-year-old son Hugo and 1-year-old daughter Harper when the incident occurred.
Crosland told the Independent she was strapping her daughter, Harper, into her seat when the plane hit an unexpected pocket of turbulence.
“I thought we were going to die,” Crosland told the UK news company, adding that it lasted for 20 minutes and it felt as if the aircraft was “falling out of the sky”.
The plane was cruising at an altitude of 30,000 feet, over the Bay of Bengal, around 3am on Friday morning, when it hit the pockets of cold air.
The severity of the turbulence was described as the most intense witnessed in years.
A member of the cabin crew who had worked in the industry for 25 years reportedly told Crosland they had only witnessed such turbulence of that level twice before.
Flight BA12 was forced to return to Singapore after experiencing severe turbulence. Photo / Flight Aware
When the plane entered a state of free-fall, Crosland had been securing her daughter into her seat.
After the first bout of turbulence ended, Crosland’s maternal instincts kicked in and she quickly grabbed her daughter from the plane crib and strapped her to her chest before the plane began to drop and shake again.
Crosland said passengers were lifted into the air, cabin crew were knocked out by food trolleys and everyone was screaming in a state of panic.
The plane was forced to turn around and return to Singapore to undergo structural checks while passengers were given hotel accommodation and rebooked on new flights. Some crew members were reportedly taken to the hospital for MRI scans and surgery.
British Airways officials have assured that an investigation will be launched to determine the cause of this alarming incident.
Fly on enough planes and you’ll likely experience at least a little turbulence.
Simply put, turbulence is a disturbance in the air, similar to a current in the ocean. When air flows over buildings or mountains, it is disrupted and causes the air around it to break up and become turbulent. So, when planes fly close to a mountain range or hilly terrain, you can often fly “through” these breaks in the airflow.
Higher altitudes also increase the chance of turbulence, as weather conditions can create pressure differences, which disrupt the airflow.
While these disruptions are typically called “air pockets”, they aren’t actually pockets of air, but rather, the aircraft being forced to follow the direction of the turbulent, disrupted air, momentarily.
Fortunately, aircraft are engineered to withstand a surprising amount of stress and strain, with significant safety margins. This means aircraft can endure even severe turbulence experienced by the British Airways BA12 flight.
