Did Singapore Airways Fly By A Hazard Zone? Former Pilot Explains

A Singapore Airways flight from London to Singapore made headlines after it got here throughout extreme turbulence that led to an abrupt rise and fall inside a couple of minutes. Tragically, one British passenger misplaced his life throughout this incident whereas at the very least 60 others have been injured. The mishap occurred roughly 10 hours into the journey over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar, an space recognized for difficult climate circumstances. The flight was diverted to Bangkok for an emergency touchdown after the turbulence hit.

In the meantime, a former pilot believed that the airplane might have entered the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ICZ) a few days following the accident. Most often, pilots keep away from this space, mentioned Marco Chan, a former pilot. However typically they’re pressured to make use of it as a result of the alternate routes are restricted, he added. Chan claimed that the ICZ across the Bay of Bengal is well-known amongst aviation professionals for inflicting turbulence.

As per The Guardian, Chan defined, “With turbulence of such magnitude, it’s seemingly the flight was navigating by means of tough thunderstorms. The incident came about throughout the intertropical convergence zone, the place thunderstorms are infamous. Thunderstorms are prominently displayed on the pilots’ navigation show nevertheless it will not be doable to fully circumvent the storm cluster as they’ll stretch properly over 50 nautical miles.”

Stuart Fox, the director of flight and technical operations on the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation (IATA), said that there aren’t any seen indicators to detect clear air turbulence as it will possibly solely be predicted by climate forecasts that determine air flows into mountains. He highlighted that airflow power and course can change quickly, inflicting wind to unexpectedly divert planes route, speedy altitude loss or sudden shocks. Pilots might obtain steering from reviews from plane forward of them, which helps them journey by means of such areas. Fox additional talked about that IATA has a platform the place completely different airways share information permitting pilots to get on the spot details about turbulence on their route.

It typically takes roughly 13 hours for the flight to journey from London to Singapore. It goes above Europe, Central Asia in addition to northern India after which takes course in direction of Myanmar and eventually Gulf of Thailand the place it lands. In keeping with the airline, 211 passengers with 18 crew members have been on board when the turbulence hit and the flight was on the altitude of 37,000 ft above Irrawaddy River basin principally situated in Myanmar.