A female traveler had her leg to be cut off when it got caught in a moving walkway at the Bangkok airport.
Strange, Horrific Airport Accident
In a report by Daily Mail, the 57-year-old Thai tourist was supposed to get on a flight from Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport's Terminal 2 to the southern state of Nakhon Si Thammarat.
However, in a bizarre incident, she tripped over her pink luggage, and her left leg was pulled into the travelator's end gear. The machine kept cutting through the limb's muscle, nerve, and bone as horrified bystanders tried to turn off the emergency switch.
Officials at the airport said that medical staff finally amputated her left leg above the knee. She was then sent to the Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital in the nation's capital.
The hospital staff stated she was first brought to Karun, where she was informed doctors could not reattach her leg, but she asked to be moved to another hospital to evaluate the possibilities.
The airport has launched an investigation to find out what went wrong. The automated travelator walkway has been shut down so that engineers may do safety inspections.
Two wheels were gone from a suitcase lying nearby, and the yellow comb-like plates that usually line the outermost part of the belt where the moving walkway ends were also shattered.
According to a statement released by Don Mueang Airport via Daily Mail, the management team and the airport's director visited the patient to check in on her care at Bhumibol Hospital, where they learned that she is currently undergoing treatment.
"Don Mueang Airport is deeply saddened by the incident and ready to fully accept the responsibility as well as take care of the medical expenses and compensation," the statement reads.
The airport reported that no planes were delayed because of the incident.
The Bangkok Airport
The first airport servicing Bangkok, Don Mueang International Airport (DMK), opened in 1914; however, in 2006, it was replaced by the newer, more conveniently located Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK).
The director of the airport stated that the walkway was built by the Japanese firm Hitachi and installed in 1996. A request for funding to replace it with a newer type in 2025 is planned.
This is not the first time a scenario like this has happened.
In 2019, a passenger's shoe got stuck in the airport's moving walkway at Terminal 1. After the incident, the airport issued a statement claiming the malfunctioning walkway was fixed and reopened within the hour.
Tragedy Strikes Again
The horrifying occurrence occurred only days after a San Antonio International Airport worker died after he got sucked by an airplane engine on the airport's runway.
The Delta Airlines ground staff worker who was killed after hitting the plane's engine was identified by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The agency said that the employee was 'ingested' into the machine. Later on, it has been ruled a suicide, according to The Sun.
