Injured Adelaide couple wait to come home after turbulent flight
An Adelaide woman on board a Singapore Airlines flight which hit severe turbulence suffered a serious spinal injury and has no feeling below her waist, with her injured husband saying the airline has agreed to medically evacuate them home.
Keith Davis and his wife Kerry were injured in the Singapore Airlines flight early this week. Photo: Seven
Keith Davis and Kerry Jordan were on board a Singapore Airlines flight from London which hit severe turbulence and suddenly plunged 6000 feet on Wednesday.
A 73-year-old passenger died and dozens were injured, with the plane forced to divert and make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
Davis said today that the “completely surreal” incident occurred without warning.
“We’ve all experienced turbulence, but there was no warning, it was completely instantaneous,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“Before we knew it we hit the ceiling, and then, slam, you’ve come down. And in that moment we’ve travelled… 6000 feet. It was absolutely horrific.”
Davis received head and facial injuries after being flung through a plastic panel above his seat and into an oxygen mask storage area.
But his wife Kerry was seriously injured after hitting a luggage compartment before landing in the aisle.
“She hit the ground and she did not move from that. From that moment on she didn’t move again,” he said.
Jordan was conscious but stayed in the aisle during landing and was then taken to Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital.
“She got surgery straight away that night at about 3am” Davis said.
“She’s come out, there’s been some slight improvement in her ability in speaking and breathing, but fundamentally she’s had a severe spinal trauma and she has no sensation from the waist down.”
The hospital said it had admitted 41 patients from the flight, with 22 suffering spinal injuries, six with skull and brain injuries, and 13 with bone, muscle and other injuries.
Davis said he heard nothing from Singapore Airlines for some time but had since met its CEO, who visited Davis and extended “very, very gracious apologies, which we’ve accepted”.
Davis said the CEO had committed the airline to medically repatriating the couple back to Adelaide.
“We’re just really, really thankful that Singapore Airlines have come on board, because they are the main player in terms of the logistics of the availability of a plane,” he said.
“My understanding…is that they are the only commercial option to get a medivac.”
Davis said he was “confident” the medical repatriation would occur once Jordan’s medical team agreed she is in a safe condition to fly.
