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The testimony of a passenger of the Singapore Airlines flight: “The plane trembled and, a second later, fell”

“The plane trembled and, a second later, it rushed,” says a Canadian passenger who was traveling on the Singapore Airlines flight that had to make an emergency landing in Bangkok the day before after “sudden and strong turbulence,” which caused one death and dozens of injuries.

“There was no warning. The plane began to tremble and, a second later, it rushed. Everything lasted about two seconds,” the passenger, who prefers to preserve his identity and was traveling with his wife, tells EFE in a telephone conversation.

Both came out unscathed from the incident because they were wearing seat belts – “we felt like we were on a roller coaster,” he describes, “but we didn’t jump out of the seat” -, unlike other unmoored passengers who were in front and around.

“They flew to the ceiling, hitting it and falling again… Other objects, such as the carts (for food and drink), too… There were so many blows that you could see holes in the panels (of the device),” he says.

The man, residing in Singapore – the final destination of flight SQ321, which covered the route from London to the city-Asian state – considers that the moment of the shock – about 2.5 hours before landing and ten hours after takeoff, when flying over Burma – was “very unfortunate.”

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“Everyone was waking up, going to the bathroom, the crew preparing breakfast… If it had happened an hour earlier, with almost everyone sleeping, the damage would have been minimal,” he says.

“Many crew members were injured because they were not seated, most of them limped or bled afterwards,” he adds.

The deceased is a 73-year-old British theater director, victim of a heart attack, and among the dozens injured, about twenty are in intensive care, according to a statement today from the Samitivej hospital in Bangkok, in whose centers most of those affected were admitted.

According to the Canadian, a doctor who was traveling on the plane tried to save the British man’s life unsuccessfully and after “a lot of effort”.

Among the injured is a 42-year-old Spanish citizen who was traveling with his wife, 38, and who presents “a bruise,” according to EFE.

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The Spaniard, whose identity and age have not transcended at the moment, “hit himself with the roof,” because he did not wear a seat belt at the time of the sudden turbulence, and “he does not have any fracture, it is just a contusion,” according to sources close to the case told EFE.

For their part, the Canadian citizen and his wife are already in Singapore, as they were part of the 131 passengers and 12 crew members who traveled this morning on a flight chartered by the airline, whose executive director, Goh Choon Phong, apologized today for the “traumatic experience.”

Another 79 passengers and six crew members remain in Bangkok, including those who are receiving medical assistance and the relatives who were traveling with them.

As reported yesterday by the airline, the plane carried 211 passengers and 18 crew members, most of them Australians (56), British (47) and Singaporeans (41), as well as two Spaniards.

According to the FlightRadar portal, which records flights around the world, the aircraft, a Boeing 777-300 ER, suffered a sudden loss of altitude for 4 minutes for which it descended from 37,000 to 31,000 feet (from 11,200 meters to 9,400 meters), when it apparently managed to stabilize.

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However, according to the story of the Canadian interviewed by EFE, which coincides with that of other passengers, the abrupt descent caused by the turbulence was just seconds, so that those almost 2,000 meters of altitude loss would also include the pilot’s deliberate descent time after the shock.

Once the plane regained stability, the crew proceeded to make a count of the injured. “When it was confirmed that there were several critics, the pilot announced the emergency landing,” which took place at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok around 15:45 local time (8:45 GMT) on Tuesday.

The executive director of Singapore Airlines, Goh Choon Phong, today apologized for the “traumatic experience” of the flight and his “most sincere condolences to the relatives and loved ones of the deceased,” in a video released by the airline.

Singapore Airlines, the second best airline in the world after Qatar Airways according to the World Airlines Awards, assured today that it is “fully cooperating” with the authorities for the investigation of the incident.

A total of 20 passengers are admitted to intensive care units (ICU) in two hospitals in Bangkok, health sources reported on Wednesday.

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The injured in the ICU are British (6), Malaysian (6), Australian (3), Singaporean (2), New Zealander (1), Filipino (1) and a Hong Kong national, according to the latest update from the Samitivej hospital.

The source, however, did not specify in its statement the problems recorded by the inpatients, which in a previous statement put six patients in serious condition.

This hospital also points out that another 38 injured passengers are already in the plant, including a Spaniard, while another 27 and 19 people who were treated for minor injuries at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport have already been discharged.

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International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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International

Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?

This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.

The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.

While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.

Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.

Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.

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