Man died of cardiac arrest on flight, inquest told

A British man who died on board a Singapore Airlines flight suffered a cardiac arrest after the plane was hit by severe turbulence, an inquest has been told.

Geoff Kitchen, from Thornbury in South Gloucestershire, died on 21 May 2024 after the Boeing 777 plane travelling from London Heathrow to Singapore encountered a sudden drop in altitude near the south western region of Myanmar.

The plane was later diverted to Bangkok, Thailand, where the 73-year-old was pronounced dead.

Dr Peter Harrowing, assistant coroner for Avon, said: “I am satisfied that it was the physiological effect of the aircraft turbulence which precipitated the cardiac arrest and ultimately Geoff’s demise.”

Harrowing reached the narrative conclusion into Kitchen’s death at a hearing at Avon Coroners’ Court earlier.

He told the inquest Kitchen, who had a history of coronary artery disease, had also been “thrown from his seat and landed on an adjacent passenger” during the incident.

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Kitchen, a retired insurance professional, had flown out of Heathrow for a six-week holiday to Singapore, Indonesia and Australia with his wife Linda.

In a statement read to the inquest, Linda said her husband had been listening to a podcast before the plane experienced a “huge drop or lunge”.

She said she had started screaming and felt “incredible pain” as Kitchen had pressed her to the side, which caused injury to her back.

She also suffered a head wound, which was “bleeding profusely”.

Kitchen was later moved to the front of the plane to be given CPR, but Linda, who sustained spinal fractures, said nobody told her he had died until two days later.

Linda spent 10 days in hospital before she was airlifted back to Bristol, where she spent another week in hospital.

An initial post-mortem examination held in Thailand found Kitchen had died from congestive heart failure.

The inquest earlier was told he had undergone an operation to fit stents to his right coronary artery in April 2019.

However, a review in October that year found he had returned to “normal exercise capacity”, a statement from his GP said.

Dr Edward Sheffield, who performed an additional post-mortem examination on Kitchen’s body in Bristol, said his cause of death had been cardiac failure due to coronary artery atheroma and the physiological effects of turbulence.

A report into the incident, which Harrowing partially read to the inquest, said 56 people had been seriously injured, 23 suffered minor injuries and one man – Kitchen – had died.

“The aircraft was cruising at 37,000ft (11277.6m) when it was approaching the west coast of south-western Myanmar.

“At 07:49 GMT, the aircraft flew past a waypoint when the aircraft experienced severe turbulence.

“By 07:53, the aircraft had stabilised,” the report said.

The crew reported the severe turbulence and made a Mayday call at 08:01 with a request to divert to Bangkok.

The plane landed there at 08:45 and was met by medical personnel.

Linda launched legal action at the High Court against Singapore Airlines last month, seeking damages to help her access specialist support for her back.

The head of Singapore Airlines, Goh Choon Phong, previously apologised for the “traumatic experience” for those onboard flight SQ321.

He had also expressed his condolences to Kitchen’s family.

In a statement via her lawyers, Irwin Mitchell, Linda said her husband’s death has been “absolutely devastating” for herself, the couple’s two children and four grandchildren.

“Losing Geoff was a crushing blow to the whole family as we all thought he would be around to see his grandchildren grow up,” she said.

Singapore Airlines have been approached for comment.