Singapore B772 enroute on Jan 18th 2019, turbulence injures passenger

Last Update: April 10, 2020 / 15:02:18 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Singapore Airlines 9V-SQL, Boeing 777-200 — Singapore Airlines 9V-SQL, Boeing 777-200 (Photo credit: Kentaro IEMOTO / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 18, 2019

Classification
Report

Cause
Turbulence

Airline
Singapore Airlines

Flight number
SQ-247

Departure
Melbourne, Australia

Destination
Wellington, New Zealand

Aircraft Registration
9V-SQL

Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-200

ICAO Type Designator
B772

A Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-200, registration 9V-SQL performing flight SQ-247 from Melbourne,VI (Australia) to Wellington (New Zealand) with 261 people on board, was enroute at FL410 about 1:20 hours into the flight when the crew turned the fasten seat belt signs on after the aircraft encountered light clear air turbulence. Forecasts had indicated vertical windshear for the cruise portion of the flight with values between one and five, the crew interpreted these values as possible light to moderate turbulence. At that time meals were being served, cabin crew checked cabin safety and that all passengers had returned to their seats and fastened their seat belts, then continued meal service. About 19 minutes after the fasten seat belt signs had been turned, meal service was nearing its end, the aircraft experienced some stronger turbulence with vertical acceleratios between 1.7 and 0.7G. A female passenger, who was returning to her seat after visiting her daughter a few seat rows away, was lifted into the air, when her feet returned onto the floor she felt intense pain in her right leg, which she could only alleviate while lying face down. About 13 minutes after the upset the fasten seat belt signs were extinguished and a doctor travelling on board as passenger attended to the injured passenger. During the descent into Wellington cabin crew attempted to secure the injured passenger, however, whenever the passenger was moved she felt acute pain, the attending doctor recommended to let her lie, the captain agreed. Cabin crew put pillows and blankets around the passenger, a flight attendant sat next to her to monitor her during landing. The aircraft landed safely in Wellington about 75 minutes after the upset. The passenger was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with the fracture of the right femur.

Singapore's AIB released their final report concluding the probable causes of the accident were:

The injured passenger had sustained the injury when a stronger turbulence occurred while she was returning to her seat after visiting her daughter in another part of the cabin notwithstanding that the fasten seatbelt sign was on. The flight crew had been aware of possible turbulence enroute and had turned on the fasten seatbelt sign some 19 minutes before.

The injured passenger had to be left lying on the aisle for landing due to the nature of the injury. The operator had no equipment to secure a person in such a position.

The AIB analysed:

The flight crew had been aware of possible turbulence enroute. At about 2300 UTC, after encountering mild clear air turbulence, the flight crew turned on the fasten seatbelt signs.

As illustrated in Figure 1, there were no other notably high vertical acceleration recorded during cruise when the fasten seatbelt signs were turned on other than the one recorded at 2319 UTC. Thus, the investigation team correlated the turbulence at this instance (i.e. 2319 UTC) to the time when the passenger was injured.

The fasten seatbelt signs had been on for about 19 minutes when the stronger turbulence occurred that caused the injury to the female passenger who had left her seat to visit her daughter in another part of the cabin.

This occurrence served as a reminder that clear air turbulence could happen any time and passengers do well to heed the fasten seatbelt signs when they are illuminated.

The pain of the injured passenger was such that she could not be moved to be seated for the landing. As moving the injured passenger may induce even more injury, the flight crew had practically no choice but to perform the landing with her lying on the aisle and without any securing device on her, although pillows and blankets were laid around her to prevent any further injury and a cabin crew member was seated next to her to take care of her during the landing.

The operator had no operating procedure on securing a passenger in a lying position during landing. It may be desirable for the operator to look into whether it would be practical to secure a passenger in a lying position.