Passengers on a Singapore Airlines flight that experienced turbulence before an emergency landing in Thailand are suffering from skull, brain and spinal injuries, the director of a Bangkok hospital said Thursday.
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Twenty people who were on board this plane are still in intensive care in the Thai capital, where the Boeing 777 made an emergency landing on Tuesday, after “extreme and sudden turbulence” over Burma, according to the company.
The experience was terrifying for the 211 passengers and 18 crew members of flight SQ321 which was flying from London to Singapore.
A 73-year-old British man died and 104 people were injured.
Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital is currently treating six people for skull and brain injuries, 22 for spinal injuries and 13 for injuries to bones, muscles and other places, according to Adinun Kittiratanapaibool, the director of the establishment.
“This is the first time we have treated patients with this type of injury due to turbulence,” he told reporters.
The patients range in age from 2 to 83, he added.
A passenger said that some people had been thrown into the cabin with such violence by the turbulence at an altitude of 11,300 meters that their skulls dented the ceiling.
“Five are in intensive care and one in a normal room. Their condition is stable. One of the patients in intensive care, a crew member, is in critical but stable condition,” Jojie Samuel said.
The passengers all testify to an incident so sudden that no one had time to fasten their seat belts.
The plane fell 1,800 meters in a few minutes.
