An Auckland man who was injured in a horror Singapore Airlines flight which hit severe turbulence has spoken out from his hospital bed.
The London-Singapore flight on a Boeing 777-300ER plane diverted to Bangkok for an emergency landing last month after the plane was buffeted by turbulence that flung passengers and crew around the cabin, slamming some into the ceiling.
One person died of a suspected heart attack and at least 70 people were injured, including Philip Whitehead, who told Stuff from his bed at Samitivej Hospital, that he had no time to get his seat belt on before the turbulence hit.
Whitehead told the outlet his neck and back were broken during the flight. He said after they landed he was rushed into surgery where two titanium plates, each 15cm long, were used to fuse his spine.
It's expected to be weeks or months before he's able to return home.
"I woke up on the floor of the aisle of the plane with a severely lacerated head, broken neck, broken back, cracked sternum, and a damaged lung," he told Stuff.
Another passenger who was injured in the flight, Josh Silverstone, said he woke up on the floor of the plane.
"I (...) didn't realise what happened. I must have got hit in the head somewhere. Lots of people hit their heads. Everyone was bleeding," the 24-year-old from South London told Reuters.
Photographs of the interior of the plane showed gashes in the overhead cabin panels, oxygen masks and panels hanging from the ceiling and luggage strewn around. A passenger said some people's heads had slammed into the lights above the seats and broken the panels.
"I saw people from across the aisle going completely horizontal, hitting the ceiling and landing back down in like really awkward positions. People, like, getting massive gashes in the head, concussions," Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student onboard the flight, told Reuters after arriving in Singapore.
Singapore Airlines flew 131 passengers and 12 crew on the relief flight from Bangkok to Singapore. There were 211 passengers including many Australians, British, Singaporeans and Kiwis, and 18 crew on the original flight. Injured fliers and their families remained in Bangkok.
"On behalf of Singapore Airlines, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased," Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong said in a video message.
