A 57-year-old Thai woman lost part of her leg after officials said she fell on a moving walkway at an airport in Bangkok and was sucked into the gear’s end of the machine.
Don Mueang International Airport officials reported the incident took place about 8:40 a.m. local time in domestic passenger Terminal 2.
The woman was traveling to the southern city of Nakhon Si Thammarat, had a “severe” accident at the end of a moving walkway after her left leg became caught in it, airport director Karant Thanakuljeerapat said during a Thursday press conference.
On its Facebook page, the airport wrote the walkway has been temporarily closed and that a team of engineers are investigating the accident.
A medical team there eventually cut her left leg off from above the knee, airport officials told the Associated Press.
Images posted on the airport’s social media page and other news outlets shows medical personnel around the woman on the ground with her lower left leg trapped beneath the machine’s belt.
The woman was taken to a hospital where doctors told her they could not reattach her leg, “but the woman requested to be transferred to another hospital to assess the possibility,” the AP reported.
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Replacement walkway plans
The airport said it will cover the woman’s medical costs and other compensation.
“On behalf of the Don Mueang International Airport, I’d like to express my deepest condolences regarding the accident,” the airport director said. “I’d like to insist that we will ensure that no such accident will happen again.”
Thanakuljeerapat said the moving walkway was installed in 1996 and there is a plan to request for a budget to replace it with a new model in 2025.
Contributing: Associated Press
Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.
