Passengers on an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Singapore miraculously escaped injury after severe turbulence sent food, drinks, and anything else that wasn’t strapped down flying into the air in the early hours of Friday morning.
Dramatic photos of the aftermath of the incident were shared on the popular social media site Reddit, showing debris littering the aisles and the remnants of inflight meals splattered across the overhead bins and ceiling.
Aftermath of major turbulence on AC19 today
byu/HefetzHashud inaircanada
Reddit user HefetzHashud, who was a passenger on Air Canada flight AC19 on October 11, said the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner “hit some major bumps” around two hours into the flight, sending everything flying, including a few people.
Despite the mess, the passenger says everyone onboard the eight-year-old aircraft thankfully escaped injury, and the aircraft continued onto Singapore as planned.
“Kudos to the crew for keeping everyone under control, and don’t forget to wear your seatbelt!!” the passenger said in his post accompanying the photos of the aftermath.
According to data supplied by Flight Radar 24, flight AC19 was flying high above the North Pacific Ocean at the time it was struck by the severe turbulence and the aircraft would have had few diversion points if anyone had been seriously injured.
Thankfully, in this case, it appears that the majority of passengers were wearing their seatbelts at the time and this is likely to have prevented any serious injuries.
In response to increasing severe turbulence events, the aviation industry is switching from recommending passengers wear their seatbelts whenever they are seated to requiring passengers to remain buckled up even when the seatbelt signs are switched off.
It’s a subtle policy change designed to keep passengers safe in the event that severe and unexpected turbulence suddenly strikes. Of course, this policy doesn’t prevent passengers from going to the lavatory or stretching their legs, but it is meant to reinforce the need to strap in whenever possible.
The more cautious approach to turbulence follows the fatal case of Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from London Heathrow, which left one elderly passenger dead after he apparently suffered a heart attack as the plane was rocked by severe turbulence.
Scores of passengers and cabin crew were seriously injured when they were sent flying towards the ceiling, prompting an emergency diversion to Bangkok for the injured to be rushed to hospital.
Many of those injured suffered head, spine, and lower injuries as a result of impacting the ceiling when they were suddenly flung from their seats because they weren’t wearing their seatbelts.
Despite the mess onboard Air Canada flight 19, the return leg to Vancouver has gone ahead as planned, albeit with a delay of just over an hour – presumably to give cleaners extra time to clear the mess.
