The fatal Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore flew through the dangerous Intertropical Convergence Zone.
Flight SQ321 encountered ‘severe turbulence’ that saw it descend some 6,000ft in just three minutes. The incident claimed the life of British man Geoffrey Ralph Kitchen, 73, who is thought to have been flung side to side in the chaos some 37,000ft above the Indian Ocean.
Around 30 other people were injured, seven of them critically, with chaotic scenes of damage and destruction coming from inside the Boeing-777 after making its emergency landing at Bangkok in Thailand. But what caused such a bizarre incident that saw people reportedly “launched into the ceiling”?
READ MORE: Singapore Airlines passenger killed by turbulence with 30 others injured on London flight
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Speaking to the Times of India, former pilot Marco Chan noted the turbulence likely occurred within the Intertropical Convergence Zone.
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The area around the Bay of Bengal is well known for turbulence, but despite pilots knowing this, their options on how to avoid it are often limited. Mr Chan explained that the incident occurred, “Within the inter-tropical convergence zone, where thunderstorms are notorious. Thunderstorms are prominently displayed on the pilots’ navigation display – but it may not be possible to completely circumvent the storm cluster as they can stretch well over 50 nautical miles.”
The zone is more famously known for what sailors call it: the doldrums, where still air could leave ships stuck for days. It sits near the equator and appears as a band of clouds and thunderstorms formed where the northern and southern trade winds meet.
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Hot sun and warm seas heat the air in the ITCZ, causing it to become buoyant, rising until it reaches such an altitude that it cools again quickly.
This constant heating and cooling leads to a near relentless stream of thunderstorms and seasonal shifts in its location over the globe dictate the wet and dry seasons of the tropical regions – as opposed to the warm and cold seasons further away from the equator.
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It was the thunderstorms that the ITCZ is known for that in 2009 brought down Air France Flight 447 which crashed and killed all 228 people onboard the journey to Rio de Janeiro from Paris.
It hit a number of large thunderstorms, leading to ice forming on the airspeed sensors which in turn led to a string of human errors.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
In general, many pilots are thought not to like the ITCZ because of its unpredictable, challenging conditions. Writing on a forum one person claiming to be an airline pilot said: “Because it can be rough as f**k.”
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