A Malaysia Airlines aircraft en route to Kuala Lumpur from London experienced severe turbulence over the Bay of Bengal, leaving several passengers and crew members injured.
Flight MH1 — an Airbus A380 — was carrying 378 passengers.
Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) confirmed the incident in a statement yesterday, stating that the passenger seatbelt light had been switched on during the incident.
“Due to a brief moment of severe turbulence, some passengers suffered minor injuries,” it said in the statement posted on its Facebook page.
“Medical crew and Malaysia Airlines senior management met the aircraft on arrival in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. A small number of affected passengers and crew have been treated by medical officers.”
The airline apologised for ‘any inconvenience caused by this weather event which was entirely beyond our control’.
It was reported that 34 people were injured.
Images shared on Twitter showed what is believed to be the inside of the plane, with items scattered everywhere.
Bernama, meanwhile, spoke to one passenger from Singapore who told the daily that ‘she thought she was going die’.
“The turbulence lasted about five three minutes when we were about three hours before we were to land at KL International Airport (KLIA). I was sitting on the upper deck. When the plane experienced the turbulence, the cabin crew were just about to serve meals to the passengers. I saw the meal packages flying off the food cart,” the passenger, who only wanted to be known as Mary, was quoted as saying.
