Calgary woman recovering after Myanmar plane crash
Visual artist fractured two vertebrae after aircraft skidded off runway
Nearly a week after a plane crash in Myanmar, a Calgary photographer is up and walking again despite a broken back.
Leya Russell said she had just finished an assignment working with the Center for Disability in Development in rural Bangladesh last Wednesday when she boarded a plane in the capital of Dhaka, bound for Yangon, Myanmar.
The Calgary-based photographer was headed for a three-day vacation, but those plans were derailed when the Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 aircraft, operated by Biman Bangladesh Airlines, skidded off the runway at Yangon International Airport.
The crash fractured two of Russell’s vertebrae, compressed her spine and left her with a serious concussion. But the Calgarian says she took her first steps Sunday with the help of a custom back brace.
“I was able to walk again for the first time and extremely hopeful that I will be able to return to my job as a photographer,” Russell told Postmedia in a statement.
Russell works in Calgary photographing weddings and is also a visual artist, but says working with non-governmental organizations overseas is her passion and “what I was born to do.”
Russell said she refuses “to let this plane crash stop me from my calling.”
“I am so inspired by my work in Bangladesh with the CDD, I just want to heal so I can get back out there,” she said.
Russell said it was “horrific” when the plane tried landing in foul weather and touched down for a moment, only to pitch upwards again before crash landing.
Video provided to Postmedia by Russell shows the plane attempt to land a few times before crashing down, cutting the video short.
Moments later, she begins filming again and the screams and moans of injured passengers trying to escape the plane can be heard while Russell asks, “Where is the captain?”
Her injuries were “too extreme” to be treated in Yangon, Russell
I was able to walk again for the first time and extremely hopeful that I will be able to return to my job as a photographer
said, and she was airlifted to a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 9, where she is still recovering.
“Everyone on board was hurt, many seriously,” Russell said, adding there have been conflicting news reports about the extent of the passengers’ injuries.
Bangladesh’s ambassador in Yangon told Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star that “all are injured more or less,” adding “no one was in critical state” and “15 of the injured are hospitalized.”