Morgan W E, Salama F D, Beggs F D, Firmin R K, Rowles J M
Thoracic Surgery Department, City Hospital, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 1990;4(8):417-20. doi: 10.1016/1010-7940(90)90070-g.
On 8 January 1989, a Boeing 737 carrying 126 passengers and crew crashed onto the M1 motorway killing 39 passengers. Of 87 initial survivors, 74 had major injuries making this an unusual accident as most aircraft crashes result in very few severely injured survivors. This prompted the setting up of a major study group, the Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Belfast Study Group (NLDB) to examine in detail the accident and its aftermath. This paper is part of that work and is an initial survey of the thoracic injuries sustained by the 87 survivors. Twenty-three passengers sustained major chest trauma and all had major injury to other parts of the body. Five of these patients died within 12 h of admission. Various patterns of chest trauma emerged from this study, including an increasing incidence of rib fractures with age and a distinctive pattern of upper zone pulmonary contusion in younger patients.
