Two-year-old among passengers needing spinal surgery after horror Singapore flight hit by turbulence

Passengers who sustained serious injuries while aboard the Singapore Airlines flight that endured acute turbulence earlier this week require spinal surgery, according to a Bangkok hospital.

20 people remained in intensive care and a 73-year-old British man died after the Boeing 777, which was flying from London's Heathrow airport to Singapore on Tuesday, ran into bad turbulence over the Andaman Sea, hurling items and passengers and crew members around the cabin.

A public relations officer for Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, where most of the 104 people hurt in the incident were treated, said other local hospitals have been asked to lend their best specialists to assist in the treatments. He spoke on condition of anonymity under hospital policy, the Mirror US reports.

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Hospital director Adinun Kittiratanapaibool said at a news conference Thursday that none of the 20 patients in ICU were in life-threatening condition. They include six Britons, six Malaysians, three Australians, two Singaporeans and one person each from Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

Passengers have described the "sheer terror" of the aircraft shuddering, loose items flying and injured people lying paralyzed on the floor of the plane.

It remains unclear what exactly caused the turbulence that sent the plane, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members, on a 6,000-foot (around 1,800-meter) descent in about three minutes, after which the flight was diverted to Thailand.

In one of the latest accounts of the chaos on board, 43-year-old Malaysian Amelia Lim described finding herself face down on the floor.

"I was so afraid ... I could see so many individuals on the floor, they were all bleeding. There was blood on the floor as well as on the people," she told the online Malay Mail newspaper.

The woman who had been seated next to her was "motionless in the aisle and unable to move, likely suffering from a hip or spinal injury," she added. Thai authorities said the British man who died possibly had a heart attack. Passengers have described how the flight crew tried to revive him by performing