A Singapore Airlines flight from London was diverted to Bangkok, where more than 70 people were being treated for injuries.

Recent research indicates that turbulence is rising and that climate change is a cause, specifically elevated carbon dioxide emissions that affect air currents.

  • venusaur@lemmy.world
    27·
    7 months ago

    How does one die from turbulence aside from not wearing a seatbelt? Maybe banging into something in front or to the side of you?

    I can’t imagine how much puke there was all over that plane after dropping altitude so quickly.

    • sp3ctr4l
      361·
      7 months ago

      Heart Attack / Epileptic Seizure induced from massive fear/stress/anxiety.

      Heart Attack is more likely, but a violent enough Epileptic Seizure can snap tendons, ligaments or your neck.

      Edit: You could also possibly choke to death on your own vomit.

      All those could kill you while secured properly.

      Edit 2: All sorts of other stress induced cardiovascular stuff like a bursting aneurysm or irregular heartbeats for a long enough time untreated could also lead to death.

        • sp3ctr4l
          3·
          7 months ago

          … Are you sure about that?

          I have had to hold down people violently seizing before to prevent them from seriously injuring themselves, and it took quite a lot of effort.

          And there are studies that show:

          Epileptic Seizures can fracture bones and rupture tendons:

          https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/epi.14738

          https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093233/

          https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4061405/

          https://www.hindawi.com/journals/criem/2022/9186275/

          So, I mean, while these more severe injuries are more rare… they can happen.

          Now in this scenario we are assuming a person belted into an airline seat, so that would restrict movement somewhat and make falling over unlikely… but also the aircraft is experiencing extreme turbulence.

          Evidently weakened bones are a common side effect of long term use of many anti-epileptic drugs as well… seems like there are tons of reports of epileptics fracturing bones and rupturing tendons from either a seizure itself or collapsing.

          … Am I missing something here?

          • set_secret@lemmy.world
            3·
            7 months ago

            Ok, so epileptic seizures can cause severe musculoskeletal injuries, including tendon tears and fractures, but these cases are extremely rare. Such injuries typically occur under specific conditions, involving additional risk factors like long-term medication use or underlying bone density issues. Most injuries associated with seizures are secondary, resulting from falls or other trauma during the seizure.

            I think it’s important we don’t present information that implies this is a likely occurrence.

            However i concede these cases are mentioned in the medical literature, so technically you’re not wrong, therefore i retract my initial comment.

            • sp3ctr4l
              2·
              7 months ago

              Thats fair, and I’ll concede my initial presentation of the idea probably should have stressed a bit more that the more serious injuries are quite rare for epileptic injuries in general, though to be fair I was sort of just attempting to present anything within the realm of actual possibility that has any chance of plausibly occuring.

              Sorry if I seem a bit edgy about it, but myself and my family members have, at a few points in our lives, had some pretty violent spasms, apparently much more uncommonly bad than the norm.

              Fucked up neurology and fun misadventures with bad reactions to what were at the time experimental remedies … and decades of doctors just straight up telling us that the events that traumatized us are impossible and cannot happen.

              Quite literally my mom and her brother ended up having a neurological condition previously unknown to medical science ‘discovered’ in them, some totally novel genetic mutation. I don’t even know if they ever gave it a proper name as unfortunately my family are also horrible pieces of shit who I don’t talk to any more, but … bleh.

              But yeah, I am biased in terms of experiencing the more extreme end of this spectrum personally, I will admit that.

        • sp3ctr4l
          1·
          7 months ago

          I have been in a few car accidents in my life (none my fault).

          Got whiplash, bruising… but the main thing is the intense shock, literal medical shock. Like you are not actually there, but at the same time everything is hyper real… its hard to describe.

          As the adrenaline wears off you realize your heart is pumping like mad.

          Its… its Donny from the Big Lebowski. Sometimes something that many people would just be shaken from, need a week off to recover… unfortunately, lots of people can’t handle that stress, and their heart will give out.

    • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
      12·
      7 months ago

      Breaking your neck when your head hits the ceiling would be the highest probability.

      In my experience, many passengers ignore the instructions to keep your seatbelt loosely fastened during flight.

      I’m guessing that this incident is going to change a few things in relation to that lax attitude by having flight crew enforce seatbelt warnings.

      • venusaur@lemmy.world
        1·
        7 months ago

        So no seatbelt or ur saying u could hit ur head on the roof even if you’re buckled properly?

    • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      Heart attack, but most of the injuries seem related to people hitting the ceiling, as many of the images in the article show holes in the plastic.

      • venusaur@lemmy.world
        1·
        7 months ago

        Ah for sure. Too traumatizing for the system. Yeah I imagine most are injuries from hitting things but hopefully most people wore their seatbelts.