Who was Geoffrey Kitchen, the Briton who died in turbulence hit Singapore Airlines flight

The man who was killed when a Singapore Airlines flight made an emergency landing after it encountered extreme turbulence, has been identified as a British passenger named Geoffrey Kitchen (73), according to a report by The Guardian.

The General Manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport Kittipong Kittikachorn said that Kitchen had 'likely' died due to a heart attack, while head injuries were sustained among seven people who were critically injured in the incident.

Kitchen, who was travelling to Singapore on the 10 pm flight on Monday from Heathrow, was a retired insurance professional who had turned into an amateur dramatics' performer.

According to the publication, Kitchen's neighbours had told that he and his wife were all set to enjoy a 6-week holiday after taking a stop enroute to Australia.

Originally from Bristol, Kitchen had lived most of his life in Thornbury, Gloucestershire after he moved into his present semi-detached home in 2012.

He is survived by his wife, a daughter who lives in Wales and a son who runs a window cleaning business.

A close friend and neighbour of Kitchen Jill Dimond told The Guardian, "He was a well-loved man. He was clever, funny, a fantastic performer, deeply caring about theatre. It was his passion."

The Kitchen and the Dimond couple would go for walks and the Kitchens had been guests at the Dimonds about last week.

According to the publication, Kitchen had last Christmas performed in a Dick Whittington pantomime and also after his retirement had set up the Thornbury Musical Theatre Group which had forthcoming productions in 2024.

The Armstrong Hall, which was earlier used for theatre productions, Kitchen had not long ago held a campaign to reopen it in Thornbury.

According to The Guardian, Kitchen, in an open letter which was published last year wrote, "Our community is much poorer for the lack of this facility; and the creative forces that have long existed are in danger of fading away. It is not too late to bring the complex back to life, but this is now extremely urgent."

According to the publication, another neighbour who expressed his sadness over Kitchen's death said, "I knew him as a neighbour; his son cleans my windows. It’s very shocking."

The Singapore Airlines did not say at what point the injuries and death took place, but a passenger said that turbulence led to those not wearing seatbelts hitting overhead cabins.

After around 11 hours of flying time from take-off in London, the aircraft sharply dropped from an altitude of around 37,000 feet to 31,000 feet within just five minutes as it finished traversing the Andaman Sea and neared Thailand.

The pilot then declared a medical emergency and diverted the aircraft to Bangkok and landed on May 21.