Chinese airline apologises after ill passenger forced to wait 50 minutes after landing before leaving for life-saving surgery
Mainland blogger with a hernia and acute intestinal obstruction told he could not take ambulance waiting on tarmac until approval granted by Beijing International Airport’s control tower
PUBLISHED : Monday, 23 November, 2015, 5:46pm
UPDATED : Monday, 23 November, 2015, 6:05pm
Laura Zhou
[email protected]
China Southern Airlines has apologised after a man who later needed life-saving surgery, was kept waiting for nearly 50 minutes after landing in Beijing before being allowed to leave and take a waiting ambulance. File Photo: EPA
China Southern Airlines has apologised to a mainland passenger who fell ill on a flight but had to wait nearly 50 minutes after landing before being allowed to take a waiting ambulance for life-saving surgery at hospital, mainland media reports.
The company’s apology came on Monday, the day after the man, who described himself as a journalist in Liaoning province, wrote on his Weibo microblog about what happened on November 9 after he suffered a hernia and an acute intestinal obstruction on a flight from Shenyang to Beijing International Airport, the news portal Sina.com reported.
In his lengthy post, the man said that he started to suffer a bad stomach at 8.20am, only five minutes after the plane took off.
About 40 minutes later, the pain grew worse and he asked for assistance from flight attendants, but they told him such pain was quite common and probably the result of air pressure inside the cabin.
Later, when he insisted that his problem was serious, airline staff rang ahead to the airport and asked for an ambulance to be waiting on the tarmac when the flight landed.
However, once the plane landed at 9:50am, he became desperate after being told he could not leave the aircraft because he needed to had to wait until clearance was granted by the airport control tower, he said.
The man, who was travelling alone, said he was also upset that, after the aircraft door was finally opened nearly 50 minutes later, he found himself in an argument with flight crew and ambulance staff when both refused to carry him out of the plane.
He said that, in intense pain, he had to walk unaided from the aircraft to the ambulance on the tarmac outside, which took him to hospital at about noon.
Eight hours later he was transferred to the People’s Hospital affiliated with Peking University, where he fell unconscious because toxins that had built up in his intestines, and underwent life-saving surgery.
“I didn’t know what to say to China Southern Airlines as I felt so powerless, and I have no idea what to say to the ambulance staff as I felt so miserable,” the man wrote on his blog.
“Luckily I am still alive and able to recount what happened.”
In a statement, China Southern Airlines said an initial internal investigation showed that the plane had been waiting to be pulled to the terminal because of a problem with the braking system while taxiing after landing.
It also said it would review future communications between flight crew and airport medical staff.
