On Thursday, March 29, an accident at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport left a woman seriously hurt and requiring amputation. The incident happened as the 57-year-old woman boarded a plane from the airport’s Terminal 2 for the province of Nakhon Phanom. She stumbled over her own carry-on luggage as she was ready to depart the conveyor belt area, and her body became caught in the conveyor belt. Nearby passengers attempted to stop the conveyor belt using the emergency stop button but were helpless to stop the disaster.
When local emergency personnel arrived at Terminal 2, they discovered the woman’s left leg was firmly embedded in the conveyer belt. They evaluated the situation and made the painful choice to immediately amputate her leg below the knee. She was subsequently sent to a neighborhood hospital for more care.
The head of operations of Suvarnabhumi Airport, Karun Thanakuljeerapat, apologized profusely on behalf of the facility during a press conference on the incident and the victim. He emphasized the airport’s dedication to making sure that similar occurrences don’t happen again.
Karun gave the injured woman his word that the airport would pay for all of her medical costs and would talk about additional compensation issues. In addition, he stated that the conveyor belt in question was installed in 1996 and was made by the Japanese business Hitachi. The airport intends to replace it with a new design by 2025 as a result of this tragedy.
The first hospital where the woman sought treatment reportedly informed Karun that it was impossible to reattach the woman’s broken foot. She requested a transfer to a different hospital so that the likelihood could be reevaluated, though. The hospital has not yet provided any clarity regarding the status of her treatment. It’s important to remember that in 2019, a man’s sneaker became stuck on a conveyor belt in Terminal 1 at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Later, the airport reported that the problem had been resolved within an hour and the conveyer belt was operating normally. Other travelers are now more concerned about their own safety at the airport due to this recent disaster.
