A terrified passenger on board the Singapore Airlines horror flight sent an emotional text message as the Boeing plane plunged 7,000 feet during deadly turbulence.
On the way to a holiday in Balitraveler Josh texted what he said could be his last words to his loved ones.
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Mum Allison Barker described the hours of desperate waiting after receiving a chilling message from her son at 9.10am this morning.
“Don't want to scare y'all but I'm on a crazy flight. The plane is making an emergency landing… I love you all,” Josh's text read.
Allison told me BBC: “'It was terrifying. I didn't know what was going on.
“We didn't know if he had survived, it was so nerve-wracking. It was the longest two hours of my life.
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“It was horrible; it was terrifying.”
When she finally got through to her son, Josh assured her he was safe.
But he admitted that he had some minor injuries teethadding that he was “in a lot of pain.”
Flight SQ321, with 211 passengers and 18 crew on board, including 47 British, took off from London Heathrow, just after 10pm on Monday.
The packed plane was wrecked by unexpected “severe turbulence” while the fliers were having breakfast, about 11 hours into the 13-hour flight to Singaporeofficials said.
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The tragedy in the sky saw the death of a British grandfather73, and dozens more hospitalized.
The Singapore Airlines flight was diverted to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, where it made an emergency landing shortly before 4pm local time.
The plane was scheduled to land at Singapore's Changi Airport at 6:10 p.m. local time.
A convoy of 13 ambulances rushed to the scene in Bangkok – with photos showing emergency vehicles on the tarmac.
Passengers appeared shaken after landing as paramedics and staff helped them off the plane in wheelchairs and onto stretchers – some wearing neck braces.
Disturbing images on board also showed people lying in seats with bleeding faces and broken noses, ceilings ripped apart and luggage lockers dented as bodies collided.
Bottles of wine, kettles and trash were strewn throughout the plane's galley kitchen, along with unfinished meals.
The tragedy should serve as a reminder to passengers and flight crew how crucial seat belts are for safety during flightone expert said.
FIX YOUR SEAT BELTS
Aviation expert and former RAF Pilot David Learmount said the aftermath of the horror turbulence indicated that few people – including cabin crew – had been wearing their seat belts.
He told The Sun: “The indication is that the crew either didn't know this turbulence was coming, or they didn't expect it to be anything like what it actually turned out to be.
“So everyone on the plane was relatively unprepared, and that's dangerous.
“If you always fasten your seat belt loosely, these kinds of disasters will not happen to you.
“It would be very uncomfortable, but at least you won't be thrown against the ceiling.”
The severity of the turbulence was “very rare”, he said, with few previous cases resulting in the death of a passenger.
The people on board the flight would not have “suffered any harm” – even if the turbulence had been terrible and all the catering carts had been disabled – if they had been strapped in, the expert claimed.
He continued, “But when you look at some of the first data coming out about this, it sounds absolutely terrifying.
'Two thousand feet – that's two thousand meters – within a few minutes the plane seems to have fallen.
“That would be a very horrific experience to go through.”
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One person on board said passengers were not wearing their seat belts when turbulence suddenly shook the plane.
Andrew Davies said BBC Radio 5 Live there was “very little warning”, adding “the seat belt sign came on, I immediately put my seat belt on and the plane just fell”.
He said: “The lesson is: wear a seat belt at all times. Anyone who is injured was not wearing a seat belt. People who were holding seat belts (myself included) are not (as far as I could tell).”
Mr Davies added that the plane “fell suddenly” with “very little warning”.
He said: “What I remember most is seeing objects and things flying through the air.
“I was having coffee. It was incredibly heavy turbulence.
“During the few seconds the plane was descending, there was a terrible scream and what sounded like a thud.”
Mr Davies added that when the seat belt signal came on, he followed the instruction, and “at that moment the aircraft suddenly fell”.
The passenger said he was helping a woman who was “screaming in pain” after suffering a “cut on her head”, adding that there were “so many injured people”, including some with cuts to the head and bleeding ears.
In a post on social media, Mr Davies added: “Many people were injured, including the stewards who were stoic and did everything they could.
“People's belongings were scattered, coffee and water splashed on the ceiling. Surreal.
'So many injured people, head wounds, bleeding ears.
“One lady was screaming in pain and had a bad back. I couldn't help her, I just gave her water.”
Mr Davies said there was “very little warning”, adding: “The seat belt sign came on, I immediately put my seat belt on and the plane just fell.”
He said: “The lesson is: wear a seat belt at all times. Anyone who is injured was not wearing a seat belt. People who were holding seat belts (myself included) are not (as far as I could see).”
Davies said emergency services in Bangkok “responded quickly” to the incident after the flight was diverted to the city's Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Student Dzafran Azmir, 28, who was also on board, told Reuters: “Suddenly the plane started to tilt up and it started to shake, so I started to brace myself for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop , so everyone sat down and the failure to wear a seat belt was immediately launched into the ceiling.
“Some people hit their heads on the overhead bin and made a dent in it. They hit the areas where lights and masks hang and broke right through.”
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