Video shows severe turbulence in 2019, not 2024 Singapore Airlines incident

IN SHORT: Several posts claim that a video circulating on social media shows the turbulence experienced by a Singapore Airlines flight. But that’s not true, the video is from an ALK Airlines incident in 2019.

A video has been posted on Instagram with the claim that it shows a Singapore Airlines flight from the UK capital London to Singapore experiencing severe turbulence.

Part of the 21 May 2024 post reads: “Singapore Airlines flight #SQ321, operating from London (Heathrow) to Singapore on 20 May 2024, encountered severe turbulence en-route. The aircraft diverted to Bangkok and landed at 1545hrs local time on 21 May 2024.”

In the video, passengers can be seen screaming and panicking, as the plane appears to be rocking in the turbulence.

Other posts making the same claim can be seen here and here. (Note: See more instances of the claim at the end of the report.)

But does the video show a Singapore Airlines flight in bad turbulence in May 2024? We checked.

Africa Check verifies

We took a screenshot of the video and ran it through a Google reverse image search, which led us to reports of an incident that happened in 2019.

The original video was posted on the YouTube channel of Euronews, a news agency headquartered in the French city of Lyon.

According to the Euronews report, dated 19 June 2019, an ALK Airlines flight from Kosovo to Switzerland experienced turbulence and 10 people were injured. Kosovo and Switzerland are countries in Europe and ALK Airlines is a passenger charter airline, operating out of Bulgaria.

A Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore did experience turbulence in May 2024, with one person reportedly dying of a suspected heart attack. The airline confirmed the incident in a statement.

But the video circulating on social media shows the 2019 incident.

The claim about the video showing the Singapore Airlines turbulence incident can be found here, and here.