Bangkok –
A young boy has been revealed to have recently sustained injuries after his foot was stuck in a moving walkway at the Don Mueang International Airport.
The news was shared to the public after a female passenger at the Don Mueang International Airport lost her lower leg after she fell down and got stuck in a moving walkway on Thursday morning, June 29th, 2023.
A Thai woman, whose name was withheld, posted on social media sites that on June 19th of this month she and her young son were at the Don Mueang International Airport. While they were on the walkway, her son’s foot suddenly became stuck in the moving walkway. His foot was removed from the device but he sustained foot injuries and had to have 11 stitches.
She said she was holding his hand on the walkway but he might have stood too close to the side of the walkway. His shoes were made of rubber which might have got stuck in the device. When his foot became stuck, the walkway immediately stopped moving. It took about half an hour to remove his foot.
The young boy did not suffer any permanent bone damage to his foot but the jarring incident upset the family.
Meanwhile, another social media user posted this screenshot that he says was the same morning of the major amputation incident showing his shoelace stuck in the walkway. He claimed the staff were slow to respond to assist him and didn’t seem to care. He also criticized their overall customer service.
The son of the unidentified woman whose left leg became stuck and was amputated below the knee has posted to the public on social media today, June 30th. He stated that he and the family are still trying to come to grips with the reality of the circumstances, noting that the airport says they will allow the family to review CCTV but as of his post had not yet provided it, with him calling them slow.
He also addressed the horror of the situation, with the family seeing staff carrying his mother’s severed leg in a foam box from the scene. His mother also has not been as concerned with the pain from the incident but the pain of living her life with only one leg through no fault of her own.
The son also stated the family is concerned about gangrene and infection but that the airport has promised to pay all medical fees relating to the incident including hiring a psychiatrist. The son thanked the public for their outpouring of support and hoped that the incident would be transparently and openly investigated by relevant agencies.
Meanwhile, officials from Don Mueang Airport have temporarily shut down all travel walkways and are performing maintenance and reviews on all of them. They are reportedly considering completely replacing the entire airport walkway system as an emergency measure, noting that the current walkways were originally installed in 1996 by a reputable Japanese company and were due to be replaced in 2025.