Girl’s leg is amputated after incident at Thai airport’s transferring walkway – NBC Bay Space
A woman’s leg had to be amputated at a Thai airport on Thursday after it was pinched by a moving walkway, officials said.
The 57-year-old Thai passenger was scheduled to board a flight from Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport to the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat in the morning when she was struck by a walkway in the airport’s Terminal 2. A medical team there eventually had to cut her to the left According to airport officials, the leg was severed above the knee.
“On behalf of Don Mueang International Airport, I would like to express my deepest condolences over the accident,” Karun Thanakuljeerapat, director of Don Mueang Airport, said during a news conference. “I want to insist that we ensure that such an accident does not happen again.”
He said the airport took full responsibility for the woman’s medical expenses and was open to negotiating other compensation.
The medical team at the hospital she was originally sent to told Karun her leg could not be reattached, but the woman has asked to be transferred to another hospital to explore the possibility, he said.
Images released online showed the lower part of the woman’s leg was trapped under the belt at the end of the walkway as she was assisted by airport staff. A suitcase lying next to her was missing two wheels, and the yellow comb-like plates had broken off where they normally cover the edge of the belt where the moving walk ends.
Karun said the suitcase wheels were found under the belt, but it was unclear how this might be related to the accident. He said the sidewalks at the airport are inspected daily, in addition to a monthly inspection. He said the walkway has been closed and a team of engineers is inspecting it to determine the cause of the accident.
The walkway was manufactured by Japanese company Hitachi and installed in 1996, the airport director said, adding that there are plans to apply for a budget in 2025 to switch to a newer model.
In 2019, a passenger’s shoe was damaged after getting caught in the airport’s moving walkway in Terminal 1. The airport then issued a statement saying the defective treadmill was repaired and reopened within about an hour.
