BANGKOK, May 21, (AP): A 73-year-old British man died and more than two dozen other passengers were injured when a Singapore Airlines flight from London was struck by severe turbulence and plunged 6,000 feet in the span of some a few minutes Tuesday over the Indian Ocean.
The flight was then diverted and landed in stormy weather in Bangkok.
Authorities said the British man may have suffered a heart attack, though that has not been confirmed. His name was not immediately released.
The Boeing 777-300ER flight from London's Heathrow airport to Singapore, with 211 passengers and 18 crew members aboard, landed at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport at 3:45 p.m. local time, the airline said in a Facebook post.
Emergency medical crews rushed to help the passengers. Videos posted on the LINE messaging platform by Suvarnabhumi Airport showed a line of ambulances streaming to the scene.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Singapore Airlines said that as of four hours after the emergency landing, 18 people remained hospitalized while another 12 were treated on outpatient basis.
"The remaining passengers and crew are being examined and given treatment, where necessary,” at the airport, it said.
Airports of Thailand group said the lightly injured and non-injured passengers are being assisted at a specially assigned location inside the terminal at the Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Thailand's Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungruangkit said in a statement that Singapore would dispatch another plane later Tuesday night to transport the lightly injured and non-injured passengers to the city-state's Changi airport.