A mother-of-two has said she thought she was ‘going to die’ after her British Airways flight from Singapore to Heathrow ‘fell out of the sky’ while cruising at 30,000 feet after being hit by the worst turbulence seen in ‘years’.
Jade Crosland, 31, was flying with her partner and their two young children on the BA12 flight from Singapore to Heathrow, London when it was struck by ‘severe’ and ‘sustained’ turbulence over the Bay of Bengal.
She clutched her one-year-old daughter Harper to her chest for dear life after the plane went into ‘freefall’ for what felt like ‘a thousand feet at around 3am on Friday morning.
Ms Crosland, who is British but now runs a hair salon business in Australia, told MailOnline that she was sat with Harper, who was sleeping in a bassinet – but her partner Henry Trier, 32, and their son Hugo, three, were sitting a few rows behind.
Mother-of-two Jade Crosland (pictured with daughter Harper, one) has said she thought she was ‘going to die’ after her British Airways flight from Singapore to Heathrow ‘fell out of the sky’ while cruising at 30,000 feet after being hit by the worst turbulence seen in ‘years’
Ms Crosland was flying with her partner and their two young children on the BA12 flight (cabin pictured after returning to Singapore) from Singapore to Heathrow, London when it was struck by ‘severe’ and ‘sustained’ turbulence over the Bay of Bengal
‘It was a completely normal flight at the beginning – the cabin crew were serving drinks and I was half asleep and my daughter was in the bassinet,’ she said.
‘The seatbelt sign came on with no announcement as I was half waking up, so I thought I had better get Harper out as when the sign is on you have to strap your infant to you.’
Ms Crosland got up to strap her daughter in but then: ‘As I stood up the plane dropped literally a thousand feet.
‘Everyone flew up in the air, everyone was screaming.’
She said: ‘One of the cabin crew was knocked out when a trolley hit him in the head. It all happened so quickly that they were still out with their trolleys.’
After the devastating bout of turbulence the worried mother hurriedly tried to get her infant daughter out of her crib that fortunately did not fly out of, to then strap her in, but Ms Crosland struggled to do so in her panicked state.
‘I was in complete panic trying to unstrap her and the cabin crew said “it’s her arm, it’s her arm!” as I was trying to get her out.’
She managed to get her daughter free and strap her to securely strap her chest within a few minutes.
‘And then it dropped again,’ Ms Crosland said.
‘It was shaking the whole time and there was this massive drop and everyone screaming.
The shaking of the plane caused trays of food to fly everywhere across the cabin.
‘I honestly thought we were going to die,’ Ms Crosland said. ‘I strapped her to me squeezing holding her thinking we’re going to die and “this is it”.
‘The passengers were all looking at each other and we were all thinking “this is it we’re all going to go into the sea and die”.
As it dawned on the young mother that she was not sitting with her partner and son, she then thought: ‘I’m going to die and I’m not going to be able to see them.’
Ms Crosland, who is British but now runs a hair salon business in Australia, was sat with Harper, who was sleeping in a bassinet – but her partner Henry Trier, 32, and their son Hugo (left), three, were sitting a few rows behind (the family pictured at the airport prior to the flight)
Ms Crosland praised the care and professionalism of the ‘amazing’ BA crew who immediately attended to their injured colleagues and assisted frightened passengers
The Boeing 777-300ER had passed over the Andaman Sea and was flying over the Bay of Bengal when it was hit by turbulence that the airline had not experienced anything like it in ‘the last five years’ and the severity was ‘obscene’, according to the Sun.
The flight was forced to turn back to Singapore at around 3am on Friday where the plane was checked for structural damage.
Ms Crosland praised the care and professionalism of the ‘amazing’ BA crew who immediately attended to their injured colleagues and assisted frightened passengers.
She said: ‘The crew were highly professional and very organised and really held it together. They were amazing and very helpful.’
One of the in-flight team suffered a dislocated ankle and another is now undergoing an MRI to check severe bruising on her hip.
And a different crew member was still in hospital yesterday following surgery on their ankle and femur.
Another passenger, Tom Owens, 27, told MailOnline explained how he saw the crew member, who had a food trolley, fly into the air and fall back down injuring his ankle.
‘His foot was at a 90 degree angle to his leg,’ Mr Owens said.
‘He was screaming for crew to come and help,’ he said. They went to check on him as the turbulence died down.
Fortunately a doctor in the opposite row was able to ‘stabilise the injured cabin crew member and get his leg in a good position’.
Stunned passengers were given hotel accommodation and were re-booked onto later flights.
Ms Crosland, who is a frequent flier, bravely arranged the next flight she could to get her family to the UK to see her mother-in-law for her 60th birthday, but she felt anxious about pockets of turbulence she would normally not notice.
Somehow, both her children managed to stay asleep during the traumatic incident.
However, she said that throughout one of the drops ‘there was a little girl going “wee” – I suppose it was exactly like a rollercoaster’.
The crew, on board the BA12 flight from Singapore to Heathrow, London, were hurt after the plane was struck by ‘severe’ and ‘sustained’ turbulence over the Bay of Bengal
The Boeing 777-300ER had passed over the Andaman Sea and was flying over the Bay of Bengal when it was hit by turbulence (file photo)
A British Airways spokesman said: ‘Safety is always our priority and we’re looking after our crew after one of our flights experienced a rare episode of severe turbulence.
‘Our highly trained team on board reassured customers and the aircraft returned to Singapore as a precaution.
‘We’ve apologised to customers for the delay to their flight and provided them with hotel accommodation and information on their consumer rights.
‘We’re re-booking customers onto the next available flights with us and other airlines.’
The plane is understood to now be flying back to London with no passengers and a reduced crew.
Severe turbulence increased 55 per cent between 1979 and 2020 and is expected to get more intense, more frequent and last longer in future.
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