A retired British grandfather was killed and around 70 people were injured after a flight from Heathrow to Singapore was hit by severe turbulence.
Geoffrey Ralph Kitchen, 73, and his wife Linda, were among 47 British passengers aboard the Singapore Airlines flight when it plunged around 6,000ft within minutes amid extreme weather. Anna Proctor, Mr Kitchen’s daughter, paid tribute to her father describing him as an “extremely kind, loving and gentle man”.
She told The Telegraph her father was “a wonderful man and he had years ahead of him and obviously we are completely devastated, adding: “He was a legend, he was.”
Passengers described “awful screaming” as the aircraft suffered a “dramatic drop”, with objects flying and people not wearing seat belts “launched immediately into the ceiling”, causing multiple head injuries.
The Boeing 777 jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where Thai authorities described responding to a “chaotic” scene.
Kittipong Kittikachorn, the general manager of the airport, said Mr Kitchen, who has two adult children and two grandchildren, suffered a suspected heart attack.
Friends of Mr and Mrs Kitchen, who were married for more than 50 years, said the couple left their semi-detached home in the market town of Thornbury, Gloucestershire, on Monday for what was to be a six-week “holiday of a lifetimeMr Kitchen was the trustee and the secretary of an award-winning musical theatre group near Bristol, and neighbours said both he and his wife were actively involved in the area’s amateur dramatics.
He had lived in the town for more than 30 years and stood last May in the Thornbury Town Council elections as an independent candidate for the North East Ward.
During his campaign, he described the area as “a good place to bring up a family” and pledged to support the arts, the environment and young people. Mr Kitchen had suffered heart problems in recent years but kept active, neighbours said.
“They were very adventurous and had been planning the holiday for a long time. They spent last weekend with their grandchildren because they wouldn’t be seeing them for a while,” Steve Dimond, 73, a close friend and neighbour told the Daily Mail.Mr Kitchen was the trustee and the secretary of an award-winning musical theatre group near Bristol, and neighbours said both he and his wife were actively involved in the area’s amateur dramatics.
He had lived in the town for more than 30 years and stood last May in the Thornbury Town Council elections as an independent candidate for the North East Ward.
During his campaign, he described the area as “a good place to bring up a family” and pledged to support the arts, the environment and young people. Mr Kitchen had suffered heart problems in recent years but kept active, neighbours said.
“They were very adventurous and had been planning the holiday for a long time. They spent last weekend with their grandchildren because they wouldn’t be seeing them for a while,” Steve Dimond, 73, a close friend and neighbour told the Daily Mail.
Source: telegraph
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