‘Keep your seatbelt on’: SA pilot Mark Hofmeyer on Singapore Airlines turbulence emergency

Adelaide-based international pilot Mark Hofmeyer says severe clear-air turbulence – a possible cause of Monday’s Singapore Airlines emergency – is a serious but rare event.

An Adelaide commercial pilot who’s been flying for 22 years says he has never encountered severe clear-air turbulence, which is being investigated as a possible cause of the Singapore Airlines emergency that left one man dead and injured another 30 passengers.

Australian International Pilots’ Association vice president Mark Hofmeyer said severe clear-air turbulence, which could be hard to detect on flight radars, was a serious but rare event that passengers could help to protect themselves from by wearing a seatbelt at all times.

“I’ve never experienced severe clear-air turbulence in my career. Severe turbulence is rare but the thing we come back to is that the consequences can be very serious,” said Mr Hofmeyer, an Adelaide-based captain with Qantas who has flown all over the world.

“Clear-air turbulence is more traditionally associated with a jet stream, cores of really strong air. There aren’t that many jet streams around the Equator.

“This is more likely to potentially be convective turbulence ... thunderstorm clouds. But it’s really too early for me to speculate, we just have to wait for the investigation to run its course.”

Australian International Pilots’ Association vice president and current Qantas pilot Mark Hofmeyer. Picture: NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

The Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 on the tarmac at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok. Picture: AFP

Mr Hofmeyer said wearing a seatbelt was the best way for passengers to protect themselves from unexpected turbulence.

“Pilots will do their best to ensure the flight is as smooth as possible as much as they can but that is not always the case, which is why the one thing you can control is that when you’re in your seat, have your seatbelt fastened,” he said.

Mr Hofmeyer said the Boeing 777-300ER plane involved in Monday’s incident, which occurred as Flight SQ321 flew from London to Singapore, was a “great plane” that had no technical issues.

The Singapore Airlines pilots made an emergency landing at Bangkok, where at least 30 injured passengers were taken to hospital.

“These aircraft are built incredibly strong, they’re designed to withstand these sorts of events,” Mr Hofmeyer said. “The pilots clearly managed it.”

Debris on the floor of Singapore Airlines flight SQ321. Picture: Twitter

He said the emergency showed that an industry push to introduce reduced crew operations on flights – which would result in just one pilot on the flight deck – would be disastrous.

“We (the union) say having only one pilot on the flight deck will drastically reduce safety margins,” he said.

“This is a really good example of why having two well-trained, well-rested pilots on the flight deck is what you need to handle unexpected emergencies like this.”

Mr Hofmeyer praised the Singapore Airlines pilots for regaining control of their aircraft after hitting severe turbulence, causing a sudden “rollercoaster effect”.

“As pilots, there’s a really big training push to manage a thing called startle effect,” he said.

“They’re human beings, too, they would have been scared and frightened when it first happened but we’re trained to manage that startle effect, then come back and work together as a team to manage the situation.”