Several Singapore Airlines victims will need spinal surgery, it has been confirmed, after a severe turbulence incident earlier this week. A total of 20 people are being treated in intensive care after the horror incident which unfolded in the air on Tuesday.
The Boeing-777 plane encountered turbulence around 11.5 hours after it took off from London Heathrow, “launching” people out of their seats and catapulting items across the cabin.
A public relations officer for Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, where most of the 104 people hurt in the incident were treated, said other local hospitals have provided their best specialists to help in the treatments. He spoke on condition of anonymity under hospital policy.
Hospital director Adinun Kittiratanapaibool said at a news conference Thursday that none of the 20 patients in ICU were in life-threatening condition. They include six Britons, six Malaysians, three Australians, two Singaporeans and one person each from Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The CEO of Singapore Airlines, Goh Choon Phong, headed to Thailand hours after the aircraft landed to meet the passengers, crew members and relatives of the people affected by the deadly turbulence that engulfed the SQ321 flight which took off on Monday afternoon.
A new statement by the airline said that, while many of the 211 travellers aboard the disrupted flight had been taken to Singapore, 65 passengers alongside two crew members who were on the flight are still in Bangkok, the city where the pilot of the Boeing 777-300ER carried out an emergency landing.
The statement added a message from the CEO himself, who said of his poignant meetings: “The well-being of our passengers and crew members remains our priority. I have given them my personal assurance that we will take care of them during this difficult time.
“Our staff volunteers are here to provide each passenger with updates and the necessary assistance. We have also facilitated the travel of their family members and loved ones to Bangkok and ensured that they are taken care of too.”
The CEO added his “deepest gratitude” to all those who provided assistance during this difficult week, as well as the staff at the hospitals who aided the injured passengers and crew members aboard the SQ321 flight.
The “sudden extreme turbulence”, the cause of which is still unclear, saw the inside cabin wrecked – with lighting and air conditioning infrastructure destroyed.
Among the passengers on the flight, which had left London Heathrow and was on its way to Singapore at the time of the incident, was 73-year-old British grandfather Geoffrey Ralph Kitchen, who is suspected to have died of a heart attack after the plane pitched down thousands of feet within minutes.
Dozens of people were hospitalised following the plane’s arrival in Thailand, and many of those left seriously injured need operations on their spines, according to Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital in Bangkok.
