What the harrowing incident left in its wake

One passenger just wants to go home, others unsettled at prospect of getting on another plane

- Kenneth Cheng

A week since she was taken to a Bangkok hospital after extreme turbulence rocked the Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight she was on, dental hygienist Karen Archer just wants "to get well and go home".

The 64-year-old Briton, who cracked three small spinal bones in the ordeal on Flight SQ321, was on her way from London to meet a friend for a five-day holiday in Singapore.

Ms Archer is unsure what treatment she will need in the coming weeks, but she told The Straits Times on May 28 that doctors hope to remove her neck and body brace some time in July and get her ready to fly home.

The thought of returning home to Malaysia is also uppermost on the minds of Ms Eva Khoo's family members.

The Kuala Lumpur-based event specialist had travelled to Bangkok, where SQ321 made an emergency landing, soon after hearing that her brother and sister-in-law, and their extended family, were hurt.

While their conditions have stabilised and they are now in regular hospital wards, Ms Khoo, 47, said the thought of getting on a plane to Malaysia is unsettling them.

"They want to go home, but they need time to overcome the phobia of flying. It's not a small thing," she said.

SQ321 one of SIA's four daily services from London to Singapore - was cruising high above the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar on the afternoon of May 21.

The jet had completed more than three-quarters of its 13-hour journey from the British capital, and a meal service was under way. Until then, the flight had been, in the words of one passenger, "quite smooth".

But, in an instant, everything changed.

For more than a minute, the wide-body aircraft with 211 passengers and 18 crew members found itself in the grip of extreme turbulence, sending unrestrained passengers airborne as the plane was swept into rapid climbs and drops.