A Vietnam Airlines (VNA) airplane flying from Hanoi to Bangkok on Tuesday suddenly dropped 122 meters in altitude after being hit by “clear air turbulence” phenomenon.
While flying at an altitude of 36,000 feet, (approximately 10,973 meters), the Airbus 321 plane of VNA flight VN615, departing from Hanoi on 2 pm, suddenly went through a clear air turbulence area and then entered a 122-meter free fall.
After the incident, among the 104 passengers and 8 crew personnel of the flight, only one passenger suffered minor injuries in the toe and two stewardesses were slightly stunned.
"The plane landed safely at Suvarnabhumi Airport (Bangkok) at 3:40 pm," said Vietnam Airlines.
According to an analysis of VNA, this was a kind of turbulence which is currently undetectable by the aircraft’s weather radar.
Besides, due to the timely first aid on the plane, the injured passenger could walk by himself and required no medical assistance.
In June this year, an aircraft of Singapore Airlines also faced a similar situation. It suddenly dropped by 20 meters, causing chaotic mess on the floor and injuring a total of 11 passengers and one crew member.
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According to clearairturbulence.com, clear air turbulence is an unseen but predictable killer, as "this phenomenon can cause an aircraft to drop several thousand feet in a very short time, not unlike an elevator, or force it into other maneuvers that are going to seriously dislodge passengers therein, or anything else that is not tied down." "There have been a lot of these incidents over the years, some very serious, resulting in major spinal cord injuries, brain damage and even death, as a passenger strikes the ceiling or other object violently as the aircraft literally falls out from under him or her," it said |
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