The next all hell broke loose, with personal belongings, food and even people being hurled around the cabin, crashing into overhead lockers and causing oxygen masks to deploy from the ceiling.
Cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet and with a good two hours left before the aircraft was due to touch down in Singapore, the twin-aisle plane was suddenly and forcefully shaken by what Pearl described as a “big hit” that took everyone off guard, followed by a smaller, “more manageable” impact.
Airlines advise passengers to keep their seat belts fastened at all times, though many people unbuckle once the pilot turns off the signs to make themselves comfortable on long journeys. Investigators will likely look at the timeline and flight data after the plane crossed the Bay of Bengal into Myanmar and onwards into Thailand to determine what went wrong. Just as the jet was over Myanmar, data on FlightRadar24 shows the plane bumping up and down before settling back at its previous cruising altitude some four minutes later.