シンガポール航空機乱気流事故　脳・頭蓋骨損傷６人、脊椎損傷２２人

【バンコクＡＦＰ＝時事】シンガポール航空の旅客機（乗客２１１人、乗員１８人）がミャンマー上空で乱気流に巻き込まれた事故で、負傷者が搬送されたタイ・バンコクの病院長は２３日、脳と頭蓋骨の損傷で６人、脊椎損傷で２２人、骨や筋肉などの損傷で１３人が治療を受けていると明らかにした。（写真は、乱気流に巻き込まれたシンガポール航空ＳＱ３２１便の乗客について会見する、タイ・バンコクのサミティベート・シーナカリン病院の病院長）
　英ロンドン発シンガポール行きのＳＱ３２１便は２１日、高高度で乱気流に遭い、急上昇と急降下を数回繰り返した後、バンコクのスワンナプーム国際空港に緊急着陸した。
　乗客らは機天井などにたたきつけられるなどして、７３歳の英国人男性が死亡、１０４人が負傷した。
　負傷者の年齢は２～８３歳で、２０人が今も集中治療室（ＩＣＵ）で治療を受けているという。
　バンコクのサミティベート・シーナカリン病院の病院長は２３日の会見で、「乱気流が原因でこのようなけがをした患者を治療したのは初めてだ」と語った。
　乗客の一人は、高度１万１３００メートルでの急降下の際、天井がへこむほど激しくたたきつけられたと語った。
　バンコク着陸後に撮影された機内の写真には、食べ物や飲み物、荷物が散乱し、酸素マスクが天井からぶら下がっている様子が写っていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】　
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/05/24-16:53）

Passengers on a Singapore Airlines flight that hit extreme turbulence over Asia suffered skull, brain and spinal injuries, the head of a Bangkok hospital said Thursday.
Twenty people remain in intensive care in the Thai capital, where flight SQ321 made an emergency landing on Tuesday after the terrifying high-altitude ordeal.
The Boeing 777-300ER hit what an airline official described as sudden extreme turbulence over Myanmar, sending passengers and crew flying and slamming some into the ceiling.
A 73-year-old British man died and 104 people were injured on the flight, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew from London to Singapore.
Adinun Kittiratanapaibool, director of Bangkok's Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, said his staff were treating six people for skull and brain injuries, 22 for spinal injuries, and 13 for bone, muscle and other injuries.
We have never treated people with these kinds of injuries caused by turbulence, he told reporters.
The injured at the hospital range in age from two to 83, he added.
One passenger said people were thrown around the cabin so violently they put dents in the ceiling during the drama at 11,300 metres (37,000 feet).
Nine of the 16 Malaysians who were on the flight are being treated in hospital in Bangkok, the country's ambassador to Thailand told AFP.
Five of them are in ICU and under observation and one victim is in normal ward. They are all in stable condition, said Jojie Samuel.
But one is in critical condition but stable. He has multiple injuries to his head, back and leg. He is one of the crew.
- Airline apology -
Passenger accounts are still emerging after the incident in which the plane plummeted 1,800 metres (6,000 feet) in just a few minutes, with too little warning for many passengers to fasten their seatbelts.
I fell onto the floor, I didn't realise what happened. I must have hit my head somewhere. Everyone was screaming on the plane. People were scared, Josh Silverstone, a 24-year-old Briton on his way to the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, told reporters.
I turned on the plane WiFi that I bought and texted my mum to say 'I love you', he added after leaving hospital, where he was treated for a cut to the head, on Wednesday.
Singapore Airlines chief executive Goh Choon Phong has apologised for the traumatic experience and expressed condolences to the family of the deceased.
Photos taken inside the plane after it landed in Bangkok show the cabin in chaos, strewn with food, drinks and luggage, and with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
A relief flight took 131 passengers and 12 crew to Singapore's Changi Airport on Wednesday to continue their journeys or return home.