If you’re one who flies frequently, you’d probably used travelators before, where it’s designed to help travelers cover long distances while making their way to the gate.
Unfortunately for one woman, she lost her left leg after it got stuck inside a travelator at the Don Mueang Airport in Thailand.
Woman loses left leg after it got stuck inside travelator
In a Facebook post written by the management of the Don Mueang Airport, it wrote that it was notified of the freak accident at 8.40am on Thursday (June 29), which occurred at the South Corridor of Terminal 2.
As shown in photos which have gone viral online, it showed a woman grimacing in pain as her left leg remained stuck inside the gap between the pallet tread and the landing plate.
The Washington Post reported that she was a 57-year-old Thai national and was on her way to catch a 9.45am flight to the Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
According to a tweet by Thai news site Khaosod English, a luggage reportedly hit the woman and caused her to fall, leading her left foot to be “sucked” into the travelator.
Unfortunately, the woman’s left leg had to be amputated and hospital staff at the first hospital she was admitted said they couldn’t reattach it. She then requested to be sent to another hospital to search for other possibilities, reported Associated Press.
Airport management apologises for accident
In response to the incident, Don Mueang Airport director Karun Thanakuljeerapat said that he and the airport management have visited the woman at the hospital and were told that she’s still receiving treatment.
“On behalf of the Don Mueang International Airport, I’d like to express my deepest condolences regarding the accident. I’d like to insist that we will ensure that no such accident will happen again,” he said during a press conference.
He added that the airport will take full responsibility for the accident and pay for the woman’s medical expenses.
As for the travelator, it has been temporarily shut down and engineers are currently carrying out safety checks on it.
Associated Press reported that the travelator was manufactured by Japanese company Hitachi and installed at the airport in 1996, where it was slated to have a newer model by 2025 but is now waiting for budget approval.
We wish the woman a speedy recovery and we hope such incidents will not happen again!
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