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Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Airlines to tighten safety rules and require passengers to keep seat belt on at all times

  • Airline announces new measure that is ‘precautionary’ but ‘not mandatory’, in the wake of Singapore Airlines flight that ended with one fatality and dozens injured after hitting turbulence
  • Company says main objective of new rule is to ‘enhance the safety awareness of passengers’

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Greater Bay Airlines announced that seat belts would need to be fastened at all times on its flights, even when the seat belt sign was off. Photo: Getty Images
A Hong Kong-based airline will tighten in-cabin safety rules from Thursday by requiring passengers to fasten their seat belts at all times, in the wake of a Singapore Airlines flight that ended with one fatality and dozens injured after encountering serious turbulence.

Greater Bay Airlines announced on Wednesday that seat belts would need to be fastened even when the seat belt sign was off as “a precautionary measure”. However, it added the rule was “not mandatory” and passengers would still be able to use the lavatories when the sign was not on.

In a statement, the company said the main objective of the new rule was to “enhance the safety awareness of passengers”.

The statement observed that “some recent flight incidents of individual airlines suggested that fastening the seat belt is an effective way to protect passengers, especially under unpredictable or severe weather conditions, such as convectively induced turbulence and clear-air turbulence”.

Greater Bay Airlines operates short-haul flights between Hong Kong and destinations within the region such as Osaka, Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul, Manila and Bangkok with its fleet of eight Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

On May 21, Singapore Airlines flight 321 from London to Singapore carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members encountered severe turbulence, during which a 73-year-old British man died and at least 40 others were injured.

A Greater Bay Airlines aircraft on the runway at Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
A Greater Bay Airlines aircraft on the runway at Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
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