A TWO-YEAR-OLD child is among 40 people who remain in hospital in Thailand after a Singapore Airlines flight from London hit severe turbulence.
On Tuesday, a flight from London to Singapore had to make an emergency landing in the Thai capital of Bangkok due to the severe turbulence in which a 73-year-old British man died.
Some 104 people were injured on the Boeing 777-300ER plane, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew.
The turbulence caused the plane to drop around 6,000 feet in around five minutes, and many passengers were unable to fasten their seatbelts in time.
One passenger said people were thrown around the cabin so violently they put dents in the ceiling.
Photos taken inside the plane after it landed in Bangkok show the cabin in chaos, strewn with food, drinks and luggage, and with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
Over 80 people were treated for injuries following the flight’s emergency landing at two hospitals in Bangkok.
Of this, 40 remain in hospital, 20 of whom are in intensive care units.
Adinun Kittiratanapaibool, director of Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, said his staff were treating six people for skull and brain injuries, 22 for spinal injuries, and 13 for bone, muscle and other injuries.
“We have never treated people with these kinds of injuries caused by turbulence,” he told reporters.
The injured at the hospital range in age from two to 83, he added.
Singapore Airlines chief executive Goh Choon Phong has apologised for the “traumatic experience” and expressed condolences to the family of the deceased.
A relief flight took 131 passengers and 12 crew to Singapore’s Changi Airport yesterday in order to continue their journeys or return home.
-With additional reporting from - © AFP 2024
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