Severe turbulence on Aeroflot flight to Bangkok injures 27, passengers 'hurled up' to the ceiling
BANGKOK: At least 27 people were injured on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Bangkok on Monday (May 1) when severe turbulence struck their plane, causing some passengers to suffer from fractured bones.
Flight SU270 hit an air pocket, the Russian embassy in Thailand said in a statement, adding that 24 of the injured were Russian nationals. The other three injured were from Thailand.
Passenger phone footage broadcast by Rossiya 24 state television channel showed a scene of chaos inside the cabin, with injured passengers on the floor, smears of blood on luggage racks and oxygen masks hanging down.
"We were hurled up into the roof of the plane, it was practically impossible to hold on," a passenger who gave her first name as Yevgenia told Rossiya 24 by phone.
"It felt like the shaking wouldn't stop, that we would just crash," she added.
The Russian airline said in an earlier statement that the Boeing 777 was hit by "severe turbulence" 40 minutes before landing in the Thai capital.
It said the crew was unable to warn passengers of the approaching danger as the turbulence occurred in a clear sky.
"All the injured were sent to a local hospital with injuries of a different kind of severity, mainly fractures and bruises," the embassy said. "The reasons behind the injures was that some of the passengers had not had their seatbelts fastened."
None of the injuries are life-threatening but some of the injured have had to undergo surgery, according to the head of the Russian embassy's consular department.
The Aeroflot plane landed at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport at 8.20am local time on Monday. Airport officials declined to comment.
Aeroflot operates two flights a day from Moscow to Bangkok. Thailand has become a very popular destination for Russian tourists, with just over a million of them visiting the country last year, mostly to the southern beach resorts.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...aeroflot-flight-to-bangkok-injures-27-8808930
BANGKOK: At least 27 people were injured on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Bangkok on Monday (May 1) when severe turbulence struck their plane, causing some passengers to suffer from fractured bones.
Flight SU270 hit an air pocket, the Russian embassy in Thailand said in a statement, adding that 24 of the injured were Russian nationals. The other three injured were from Thailand.
Passenger phone footage broadcast by Rossiya 24 state television channel showed a scene of chaos inside the cabin, with injured passengers on the floor, smears of blood on luggage racks and oxygen masks hanging down.
"We were hurled up into the roof of the plane, it was practically impossible to hold on," a passenger who gave her first name as Yevgenia told Rossiya 24 by phone.
"It felt like the shaking wouldn't stop, that we would just crash," she added.
The Russian airline said in an earlier statement that the Boeing 777 was hit by "severe turbulence" 40 minutes before landing in the Thai capital.
It said the crew was unable to warn passengers of the approaching danger as the turbulence occurred in a clear sky.
"All the injured were sent to a local hospital with injuries of a different kind of severity, mainly fractures and bruises," the embassy said. "The reasons behind the injures was that some of the passengers had not had their seatbelts fastened."
None of the injuries are life-threatening but some of the injured have had to undergo surgery, according to the head of the Russian embassy's consular department.
The Aeroflot plane landed at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport at 8.20am local time on Monday. Airport officials declined to comment.
Aeroflot operates two flights a day from Moscow to Bangkok. Thailand has become a very popular destination for Russian tourists, with just over a million of them visiting the country last year, mostly to the southern beach resorts.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...aeroflot-flight-to-bangkok-injures-27-8808930
