In Bangkok, the wounded of Singapore Airlines 321 recall flight’s horrors

Nine Australians are patients at Srinakarin. Three of them are in intensive care. Another three are getting treatment at another hospital called Sukhumvit.

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The London to Singapore route is common for Australians returning from Europe, and 56 were among the SQ321’s passengers. Most have since made it home.

The husband of one of the more serious Australian cases sits for a time among journalists in the Srinakarin lobby. He is not to be quoted, but neither is he ready to leave for the airline-arranged hotel across the road.

He and his wife were coming home from a holiday. When the plane shuddered and plunged, and she was waiting for the toilets. There wasn’t enough time for her to get back to her seat. He doesn’t want to talk about what he saw.

While the aircraft was structurally sound to continue, Kitchen’s death prompted the captain to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.

Silverstone, 24, woke up on the floor of the plane with a chipped front tooth and gashes around his left eye.

“I stood up and turned around and people were on the floor and bleeding,” he says. “Things from the ceiling were falling down. It was very quick.”

He felt okay for the rest of the flight, but on the ground he was vomiting uncontrollably and struggling to walk, the obvious signs of concussion.

We meet him as he is being discharged. His floor was mostly filled with Kiwis, Australians and Brits, he says.

“A lot of people up there have got spinal issues,” he says. “A lot of people can barely move. I’m one of the lucky ones.”

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