ONE of the five Filipinos on board Singapore Airlines Flight 321 is expected to undergo neck surgery and another, a 62-year-old male, is in the intensive care unit at a Bangkok hospital, as a result of injuries they suffered when their plane encountered severe turbulence, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said Thursday.
The Filipina, who works in Singapore, fractured her neck and back. Her condition remains “sensitive” but stable.
“[There is] no word yet on the treatment or surgery options for her back injuries,” the DMW said.
Officials gather around the Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER airplane, which was headed to Singapore from London before making an emergency landing in Bangkok due to severe turbulence, as it is parked on the tarmac at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok on May 22, 2024. A 73-year-old British man died and more than 70 people were injured on May 21 in what passengers described as a terrifying scene aboard Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 that hit severe turbulence, triggering an emergency landing in Bangkok. Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
“Representatives from the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok visited the overseas Filipino worker in the hospital [on Wednesday], and arrangements are being made for a family member to join her as she recovers, they added.
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Meanwhile, the 62-year-old Filipino passenger remains unconscious.
“Doctors are monitoring his condition for further evaluation and treatment. A nephew based in Bangkok is assisting him,” the DMW said.
Also, the Migrant Workers Office in London said the United Kingdom-based Filipina staff nurse and her two-year-old infant son, as well as her husband, are all in a stable condition.
The DMW said Singapore Airlines is covering all expenses of affected passengers on board flight SQ321, which was diverted to Bangkok following “severe extreme turbulence” on a nonstop flight from London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom to Singapore on Tuesday.
A Bangkok hospital said many of the more seriously injured people on SQ321 needed operations on their spines.
Twenty people remained in intensive care and a 73-year-old British man died after the Boeing 777, which was flying from London’s Heathrow airport to Singapore, suddenly descended sharply after hitting the turbulence over the Andaman Sea on Tuesday.
A public relations officer for Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, which has treated more than 100 people hurt from the ordeal, said other local hospitals have been asked to lend their best specialists to assist in the treatments. He asked not to be named because of hospital policy.
Passengers have described the “sheer terror” of the aircraft shuddering, loose items flying and injured people lying paralyzed on the floor of the plane.
It remains unclear what exactly caused the turbulence that sent the plane, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members, on a 6,000-foot descent in about three minutes.
One passenger said people were thrown around the cabin so violently they put dents in the ceiling during the drama at 37,000 feet, leaving dozens with head injuries.
Photos from inside the plane show the cabin in chaos, strewn with food, drinks bottles and luggage, and with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
“I was flung up to the roof and then as the plane dropped forward so did I,” one passenger told Australian media on Wednesday after arriving in Sydney.
“I then hit the floor quite hard and all the breakfast items and glass flew forward as well.
“The poor crew was preparing breakfast for everyone, so they got the worst injuries.”
In one of the latest accounts of the chaos on board, 43-year-old Malaysian Amelia Lim described finding herself face down on the floor.
“I was so afraid…. I could see so many individuals on the floor, they were all bleeding. There was blood on the floor as well as on the people,” she told the online Malay Mail newspaper.
The woman who had been seated next to her was “motionless in the aisle and unable to move, likely suffering from a hip or spinal injury,” she added.
The ICU patients included six Britons, six Malaysians, three Australians, two Singaporeans and one person each from Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the Philippines, Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital said. It said it had provided medical care to a total of 104 people.
Thai authorities said the British man who died possibly had a heart attack. Passengers have described how the flight crew tried to revive him by performing CPR for about 20 minutes.
Most people associate turbulence with heavy storms, but the most dangerous type is so-called clear air turbulence. Wind shear can occur in wispy cirrus clouds or even in clear air near thunderstorms, as differences in temperature and pressure create powerful currents of fast-moving air.
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