BRITISH HOLIDAYMAKER GEOFF KITCHEN DIED AFTER SEVERE TURBULENCE TRIGGERED CARDIAC ARREST, INQUEST HEARS

A British grandfather who died aboard Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 suffered a fatal cardiac arrest after the aircraft was hit by severe turbulence, a UK inquest has heard.

Geoff Kitchen, 73, from Thornbury in South Gloucestershire, was travelling with his wife Linda on a six-week holiday to Singapore, Indonesia and Australia when the Boeing 777 encountered extreme turbulence over Myanmar on May 21, 2024.

More than two years later, an inquest has provided a clearer account of what happened to the retired insurance professional during those terrifying seconds.

THE MOMENT THE FLIGHT SUDDENLY DROPPED

SQ321 was cruising at around 37,000 feet when it encountered severe turbulence over the southwest of Myanmar.

Investigators previously established that the aircraft experienced rapid changes in vertical acceleration over approximately 4.6 seconds, causing the plane to lose about 178 feet of altitude.

Passengers who were not securely restrained were thrown into the air before being forced back down as the aircraft’s vertical acceleration changed dramatically.

The incident left 56 people seriously injured and another 23 with minor injuries.

Geoff was the only person who died.

The aircraft was diverted to Bangkok, where it landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport at approximately 8:45 a.m. He was pronounced dead after the emergency landing.

“A HUGE DROP OR LUNGE”

Geoff was sitting beside his wife when the turbulence struck.

In a statement read to the inquest, Linda described feeling a sudden “huge drop or lunge.”

She suffered serious injuries to her back as her husband was thrown against her.

Two passengers eventually helped move Geoff away, and he was taken toward the front of the cabin where CPR was performed.

Linda had also suffered a significant head wound and was taken for medical treatment.

She later spent 10 days in hospital in Bangkok before being transferred back to Bristol, where she spent another week recovering.

THE CORONER’S CONCLUSION

An initial post-mortem examination in Thailand had attributed Geoff’s death to congestive heart failure.

But a further examination in Bristol provided additional findings.

Consultant pathologist Dr Edward Sheffield gave the cause of death as cardiac failure associated with coronary artery atheroma and the physiological effects of aircraft turbulence.

Assistant coroner Dr Peter Harrowing then concluded that it was the turbulence itself that precipitated the cardiac arrest.

He said he was satisfied that the “physiological effect” of the aircraft turbulence ultimately caused Geoff’s fatal cardiac arrest.

GEOFF HAD A HISTORY OF HEART DISEASE

The inquest heard that Geoff had previously suffered coronary artery disease and had undergone surgery to have stents fitted to his right coronary artery in 2019.

However, medical evidence presented to the inquest indicated that he had returned to normal exercise capacity following the procedure.

A later review in 2023 had also found no reported problems of the kind that would have prevented him from travelling.

The coroner’s conclusion therefore linked the existing heart condition with the extreme physiological stress produced by the turbulence.

LINDA CONTINUES TO SEEK ANSWERS

Linda, now 74, has begun legal proceedings against Singapore Airlines seeking damages related to the injuries she suffered during the incident.

Her lawyers say the family still has questions about what happened and whether more could have been done to prevent the injuries suffered aboard the aircraft.

For Linda, the tragedy has left her without the husband she expected to continue growing older with.

The couple had been travelling together for what was supposed to be a six-week holiday.

Instead, the journey became one of the most traumatic experiences of their lives.

INVESTIGATION FOUND THE PILOTS’ ACTIONS WERE APPROPRIATE

Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau investigated the incident and reconstructed the sequence of events.

The investigation found that the pilots responded to the sudden turbulence and manually controlled the aircraft before stabilising it and diverting to Bangkok.

The final investigation also examined the difficulty of detecting the developing weather conditions ahead of the aircraft.

For Geoff’s family, however, the technical findings cannot change the central fact of what happened that morning.

A six-week holiday ended in tragedy, while dozens of other passengers were left injured.

More than two years later, the UK inquest has now formally linked the severe turbulence to the cardiac arrest that took Geoff Kitchen’s life.

GEOFF KITCHEN WAS THE ONLY PERSON TO DIE IN THE SQ321 TURBULENCE INCIDENT — AND HIS FAMILY IS STILL SEEKING ANSWERS ABOUT THE TRAGEDY THAT CHANGED THEIR LIVES.

FULL STORY IN THE COMMENTS.