“This is the first time we have treated patients suffering from this type of injury due to turbulence,” said Adinun Kittiratanapaibool, director of Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, where passengers from the London- Singapore are being treated, two days after the emergency landing of the Boeing 777 in the capital.
Currently, six people are hospitalized for injuries to the skull and brain, twenty-two for spinal injuries and thirteen for injuries to bones, muscles and other places, according to the hospital director. These patients range in age from 2 to 83 years old, he added.
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. A total of 104 people were injured and one man, 73-year-old Geoff Kitchen, died.
A terrifying experience
Nine of the 16 Malaysians who were on the plane are being treated in Bangkok, Malaysia’s ambassador to Thailand said. “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 experience was terrifying for all 211 passengers and 18 crew members of flight SQ321 which was flying from London to Singapore. 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. 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.
Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong offered his condolences to the deceased’s family and said he was “truly sorry for the traumatic experience”.