40 Injured as MAB MH1 Experiences Severe Turbulence Over Bay of Bengal

6th Jun 2016

40 people were injured yesterday as a result of some heavy turbulence in the air, during the flight from London to Kuala Lumpur on the Malaysia Airlines MH1.

According to MAB, “some passengers” were hurt when the plane was flying over the Bengal Bay on Sunday.

Here is a full statement from the carrier:

Malaysia Airlines flight MH1 from London Heathrow landed on time in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday 5 June. During the flight over the Bay of Bengal the passenger seatbelt light was switched on due to air turbulence. Due to a brief moment of severe turbulence some passengers suffered minor injuries.

The statement continued:

Medical crew and Malaysia Airlines senior management met the aircraft on arrival in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). A small number of affected passengers and crew have been treated by medial officers. Malaysia Airlines has assisted the 378 passengers and crew onboard MH1 and sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience caused by this weather even which was entirely beyond our control.

According to Malaysian media, 34 passengers and six members of the crew were injured on Sunday during the turbulence. One woman was apparently helped off the plane on a stretcher and she was wearing a neck brace.

Photos uploaded to Facebook and other social media showed the interior of the Airbus A380 littered with all kinds of debris, from meal-service to pillows.

Turbulence Evokes the Memory of MH17 and MH370

Fortunately, there were no casualties during the turbulence and it seems most got away with only a few scraps and bruises. Still, to many, this sparked the memory of two catastrophes the airline suffered in 2014.

In March that year, flight Mh370 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Since then, several pieces of debris belonging to the Boeing 777 have been found, but it still remains to be discovered why this happened and why the plane diverted shortly before it re-appeared on the radar. There were 239 on board.

In July same year, flight MH17 was shot down over war-torn Ukraine. All 298 passengers and crew members were killed when the Russian-manufactured ground-to-air “Buk” missile.