British man, 73, dies in Singapore Airlines turbulence incident while on holiday with wife

Geoffrey Ralph Kitchen was pronounced dead after the plane, which was en route from London to Singapore, made an emergency landing in Thailand, British media reported.

The man, from Thornbury, Gloucestershire, is believed to have suffered a heart attack.

His wife, Linda, remains in hospital, according to The Telegraph.

The couple were set to embark on a six-week trip to Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and Australia, a holiday his friends and neighbors said they had planned for a long time.

The Sun reported that Geoffrey, an amateur actor and former insurance worker, had experienced heart problems in recent years and had stents put in to widen his arteries.

Geoffrey Ralph Kitchen in a photo posted on his Facebook page.

Friends, neighbors, and former colleagues have paid tribute to the man, who is also survived by a son and a daughter.

The Thornbury Musical Theater Group, where he worked for 35 years, praised him as a "gentleman with the utmost honesty and integrity," The Independent reported.

Neighbor Steve Dimond, 73, told The Mirror: "It's a terrible shock; he was a really nice bloke. They were a lovely couple."

"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."

The interior of Singapore Airline flight SQ321 is pictured after an emergency landing at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand, May 21, 2024. Photo by Reuters

The flight, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members on a Boeing 777-300ER, hit severe turbulence while flying over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar about 10 hours into the flight, the airline said, Reuters reported.

It plunged 7,000 feet in just six minutes after experiencing the turbulence.

Seventy-one people were hospitalized with injuries. Most of the passengers were Australians, British, and Singaporeans.