Allan Lokos, world-renowned founder of the Community Meditation Center on the Upper West Side, was among the survivors of a horrific plane crash in Myanmar on Christmas Day.
Lokos and his wife, Susanna Weiss, who run the CMC on Columbus Avenue, were vacationing in Myanmar and were seated near the back of the Air Bagan flight from Mandalay to Heho Airport, en route to tourist destination Inle Lake. The plane carrying 71 passengers crash-landed in dense fog in a rice field and burst into flames, killing two.
Weiss broke a lower vertebrae in her back during the impact, and Lokos, 72, has third-degree burns on his legs, hands and head. He saved his wife by pushing her out of the plane through a fire-engulfed exit before he jumped through the flames himself.
“Allan had me jump through the fire and fall to the ground. He was caught in [the plane] for much longer before he finally emerged,” Weiss told us from Singapore. “He was behind me so long that I thought maybe he must have cleared out and he was going to go through the front. I was screaming for him and calling his name. But I could barely turn towards the plane because the fire was so hot. Then, finally he appeared.”
The couple, who have been married for 20 years, were rushed to a local hospital in a truck, where badly burned Lokos, who is 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, had to lie on a metal shelf. The rural hospital had few supplies, and locals donated sheets and pillowcases to comfort the injured.
With the help of the US consulate, the president of Air Bagan sent his private jet to fly Lokos and Weiss to Bangkok. They were then taken to Singapore and treated at the General Hospital, which has a well-equipped burn unit.
Lokos, who has already had two surgeries, is still in an ICU in Singapore, but is expected to return to New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Monday. “He was amazingly strong, calm, very grounded and very centered. He has been an amazing pillar of strength,” said Weiss. The Rev.Desmond Tutu has extended his prayers to the couple.