A UK inquest concluded that Geoff Kitchen died because severe turbulence on Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 precipitated a cardiac arrest. The 73-year-old British passenger had a history of coronary artery disease, but assistant coroner Dr Peter Harrowing identified the turbulence’s physiological effect as the trigger for his death.
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How the coroner weighed Kitchen’s heart disease
Flight SQ321 encountered severe turbulence near Myanmar on May 21, 2024, while travelling from London to Singapore. At the September 23, 2026, inquest at Avon Coroners’ Court, Harrowing said the turbulence’s physiological effect had precipitated Kitchen’s cardiac arrest and ultimately his death.
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The inquest heard that Kitchen had coronary artery disease and had undergone treatment for a critical coronary artery lesion in 2019. That medical history was part of the evidence, but it did not displace the coroner’s conclusion that turbulence triggered the fatal event.
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10 Available accounts of the post-mortem evidence do not set out enough detail to assign a precise weight to each finding or describe a more specific medical mechanism.
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What Linda Kitchen reported
In a statement read to the inquest, Linda Kitchen said she was seated with her seatbelt on when she felt turbulence followed by a sudden, forceful drop or lunge. Her husband had been listening to a podcast shortly before the incident.
14 She described intense pain from a back injury; reports also say she suffered spinal fractures and a head wound.
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Linda was treated in intensive care in Bangkok and later returned to the UK for further treatment. She has begun legal proceedings against Singapore Airlines seeking damages related to her injuries.
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Other passengers and the airline’s response
Reports of the inquest say 72 other passengers were injured, 51 of them seriously.
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7 After the incident, Singapore Airlines chief executive Goh Choon Phong apologised for passengers’ traumatic experience and said the airline was cooperating with investigators.
2 Asked about Linda Kitchen’s legal proceedings in August 2026, the airline said it could not comment on a matter before the courts.
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