Grandfather dies after severe turbulence on Singapore Airlines flight

A retired British grandfather was killed and 70 others were injured after a flight from Heathrow to Singapore was hit by severe turbulence.

Geoffrey Ralph Kitchen, 73, died after the aircraft suffered a “dramatic drop”, with those not wearing seatbelts “launched immediately into the ceiling”.

Geoffrey Kitchen died on the Singapore Airlines flight.Credit: Facebook

The Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-ER aircraft was forced to perform an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where Thai authorities described encountering a “chaotic” scene on board.

Kittipong Kittikachorn, the general manager of the airport, said Kitchen, who has two grown-up children and two grandchildren, suffered a suspected heart attack.

He was travelling with his wife of more than 50 years, Linda, who was taken to hospital for treatment.

Kitchen was the trustee and secretary of a musical theatre group in the English market town of Thornbury, Gloucestershire.

The couple lived in the semi-detached home they bought in 2009. Kitchen was a well-known member of the local community and had lived in the town for more than 30 years. Last May, he stood in the Thornbury Town Council elections as an independent candidate for the North East Ward.

During his campaign, he described his local town as “a good place to bring up a family, and it clearly still has that draw for new families”, and pledged to support the arts, the environment and young people.

Images posted on social media showed damage to the aircraft’s cabin ceiling, with food, cutlery and other debris strewn across the floor.

Andrew Davies, of Lewisham in London, said fellow passengers had received “very little warning” to put on their seatbelts. He described seeing many injured, some with cuts to the head and bleeding ears.

“A lady was screaming in pain with a bad back,” he said.

Singapore Airlines said flight SQ321, which took off from London’s Heathrow Airport at 10.17pm on Monday, “encountered severe turbulence en route”. There were 211 passengers and 18 crew on board.

“We can confirm that there are injuries and one fatality on board,” a spokesman said, offering the airline’s “deepest condolences to the family of the deceased”.

The aircraft diverted to Bangkok about 90 minutes before its scheduled arrival in Singapore, making an emergency landing in the Thai capital about 4pm local time.

Kittikachorn said: “We followed the protocol and went in and found lots of injuries and a fatality.”

Airport officials enacted an emergency action plan and “evacuated the passengers right away”, he said.

The airport’s medical team rushed to the tarmac and tended to the injured, with waiting ambulances transferring them to a hospital for further treatment.

The interior of the Singapore Airlines flight after the emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.Credit: Reuters

Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student on board the flight, described how the plane suddenly began “tilting up” and “shaking”.

“I started bracing for what was happening, and very suddenly, there was a very dramatic drop, so everyone seated and not wearing a seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling,” he said.

“Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it. They hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it.”

Davies, a freelance project manager, said: “Anyone who is injured was not wearing a seatbelt. People who kept them on, including me, are not, as far as I could tell.

“My heart goes out to the gentleman who lost his life and his poor wife. Awful experience.”

Davies described how passengers with medical training tried to help “as much as they could”, including administering CPR to Kitchen.

The aircraft encountered extreme turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin about 10 hours after its departure from London. Flight-tracking data showed the plane falling about 5000 feet from a cruising altitude of 37,000 feet within minutes.

Last week, a British Airways flight was forced to return to Singapore after encountering heavy turbulence.

One crew member reportedly needed surgery on her ankle after she was injured during the flight.

In June last year, two British Airways cabin crew suffered broken legs when a flight from Singapore to Heathrow was affected by severe turbulence over the Bay of Bengal.

The Telegraph, London

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