A passenger on board the recent deadly Singapore Airlines flight said he is experiencing life-altering injuries. In fact, the injuries might force him to change his entire career.
According to Yahoo! News, “Bradley Richards, 29, was left with six fractures in his spine and neck and internal bleeding after flight SQ321, from London to Singapore, dropped 176ft in four seconds.”
On the flight, a 73-year-old man died of a suspected heart attack during the turbulence. Several others were also severely injured. Richards himself believes he went unconscious, as he remembers waking up to blood pouring out of his head.
“I remember waking up and my head was just pouring with blood, kids were screaming, people running around everywhere, it was so frantic,” he said. “It was like something out of a movie.”
While using a pillow to stop the bleeding, he “immediately felt spinal pain,” he said.
“I tried to use my cushion to stem the blood – one of the ones they hand out for on the flights,” he explained. “Once we landed, I was near the back of the plane and I remember the medical staff running on and having to step over all the injured people on the floor.”
Once the plane landed, he was lifted into a wheelchair.
“They couldn’t get a stretcher to me so I was supported off the plane,” Richards continued. “I told them about my spinal pain and the workers had to pick me up, support me under my armpits, and carry me to a wheelchair.”
It turned out he had multiple spine and neck fractures and a spinal epidural hematoma. Not only that, but he suffered a cut on his head that was so deep it required 20 stitches.
“It was just all so traumatic,” he said.
Passenger on Deadly Singapore Airlines Flight Might Be Forced to Switch Careers Due to Injuries
As a result of these injuries, Richards’s doctors do not believe he will return to work as an engineer. In fact, he’s still recovering in a hospital in Bangkok rather than home to the UK.
“It’s just gutting – I’ve worked in that role for seven years and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” he said.
“It’s not been pleasant, I can assure you that, but I try my best to remain positive and the airline and hospital have been so good to me,” Richards contained. “The health care is second to none.”