Tourists at Bangkok International Airport have become unwitting witnesses of a terrible tragedy unfolding right in front of their eyes. The leg up to the knee of one traveler was caught in a moving canvas, the limb had to be amputated. This was reported by the Daily Mail.
N.B. Let's supplement this information with new details – read them in the material “Everything is much worse: in this cursed place of the airport in Thailand, they have repeatedly tried to cut off the legs of tourists.”
The incident took place on the morning of June 30 at Don Muang International Airport Terminal 2 as the 57-year-old Thai woman was preparing to board a flight bound for Nakhon Si Thammarat province. According to eyewitness accounts, it all happened suddenly when a tourist tripped over her pink suitcase in front of the moving walkway. Her left leg immediately began to tighten the mechanism. Horror and panic seized the passengers, who instantly realized the danger and tried to use the emergency switch, as the structure continued to tear the muscles, tendons and bones of the unfortunate tourist's limb.
“It was terrible,” said one witness. “We heard her scream as the travator grabbed her leg. People started screaming and running around trying to turn off the track to save her.” The alarmed passengers could not hide their shock. They described the moment of the incident as “terrifying and shocking”. A nearby suitcase was missing two wheels, and the yellow comb-like plates were broken off where they would normally cover the edge of the belt and end the moving part of the track.
The airport staff responded to the alarming cries of passers-by. The staff called the medical team, but, unfortunately, it turned out that it was already impossible to save the leg. According to them, the doctors were forced to decide to amputate the leg above the knee in order to stop further tissue destruction and save the passenger's life. The operation was carried out right at the scene before the tourist was taken to the capital's Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital for treatment.
Airport authorities immediately launched an investigation to find out the cause of the incident. Experts study the condition of the canvas and conduct a safety check. According to preliminary data, two wheels were missing on the pavement at the time of the incident, and the yellow plates covering the edge of the belt were damaged. The engineering team immediately began a safety check and inspected the escalator and sidewalk.
Don Mueang Airport expressed its condolences to the injured tourist and stated that it takes full responsibility for medical expenses and compensation. At the same time, he notified that not a single flight was delayed due to the incident.
This horrific incident is reminiscent of a previous incident that nearly ended in disaster. In 2019, a passenger also got stuck on a moving walkway at an airport in Bangkok, but only damaged his shoes. The incident was in Terminal 1. At that time, the airport reported that the faulty track was quickly repaired and re-commissioned. However, these recurring incidents make one think about the need to upgrade and replace old equipment at Don Mueang Airport in order to prevent similar accidents in the future.
Help: Don Muang International Airport in the Thai capital was put into operation in 1914, but in 2006 it was replaced by the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport, located on the outskirts of the city. According to the explanation of the head of the air harbor, automatically moving canvases were installed in 1996 by the Japanese company Hitachi. However, given the age and possible safety issues, the airport plans to request a budget for a replacement with a newer model, though not now, but only in 2025.
Here are a few accidents that have occurred on the moving walkways in recent:
- At the Okruzhnaya metro station, an 11-year-old student suffered a broken jaw after his head was caught in part of an escalator while riding up a moving staircase. First, the mechanism tightened the arms, then the head got stuck – the child was trapped. It took firefighters 30 minutes to free the victim, the student was taken to the hospital with fractures and wounds.
- In 2019, on an escalator in a shopping center in Bangkok, a two-year-old boy almost lost his right arm when it was sucked into a moving escalator. Firefighters managed to free the boy.
- In 2018, at a metro station in Istanbul, Turkey, an escalator that was disabled due to repairs began to move during rush hour. People descending it suddenly began to fall, one person was squeezed under the metal stairs. The escalator kept moving for a few seconds before stopping. The victim was saved within an hour.
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