In May 2024, a dream six-week vacation across Singapore, Indonesia and Australia turned into an unthinkable tragedy for British couple Linda and Geoff Kitchen, leaving 74-year-old Linda a widow with permanent life-altering injuries and now pursuing legal action against Singapore Airlines for accountability. The couple, from Thornbury near Bristol, had been 10 hours into their flight departing London Heathrow when catastrophic unexpected turbulence struck the aircraft over Myanmar, sending the plane plummeting an astonishing 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) mid-flight. Recalling the harrowing incident, Linda Kitchen described how mild turbulence over Europe and the Indian Ocean had already made the journey uneasy, but nothing compared to the violent jolt that hit hours into the flight. “It was so severe; it felt like the aircraft was dropping. I noticed my Kindle and Geoff’s phone had fallen to the floor, and I thought the plane was going down,” she said in a statement shared through her legal team. As the plane dropped sharply, 73-year-old Geoff was thrown on top of Linda, crushing her into the aircraft’s armrest and breaking her back. Oxygen masks deployed across the cabin as the flight crew responded to the emergency, ultimately diverting the plane to an emergency landing in Bangkok, Thailand. Passengers and traveling medical personnel immediately rushed to assist, moving Geoff off of Linda and starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the chaos that followed, Linda was transported off the plane to a local hospital for urgent care, while Geoff remained on board to receive continued treatment. It would be two full days before the grieving widow received confirmation that her husband, who she described as her “soul mate,” had succumbed to fatal injuries. Medical reports indicate Geoff suffered a fatal heart attack triggered by the sudden high-altitude altitude drop of the aircraft. Linda spent 10 days recovering in a Thai hospital before she was medically airlifted back to her home in Bristol, where she spent an additional week in inpatient care. The severe pain she endured made the entire repatriation journey a blur, she said, and even after discharge she requires round-the-clock specialized support at home to manage her chronic back injury. Now, more than two years after the tragedy, Linda has initiated High Court legal proceedings against the airline, seeking damages to cover the cost of her ongoing specialist care and, more importantly, answers for her family. Her legal representative, Anthe Korelidou, a leading aviation injury lawyer, said the devastating outcomes for the couple highlight the extreme severity of the incident, and that the family has never received full clarity on what went wrong. “While it’s more than two years since Geoff’s death, Linda and the rest of her family continue to have a number of questions and concerns about what happened and if more could have been done to prevent their injuries,” Korelidou stated. “All Linda wants is for the most thorough investigations to be conducted. The issuing of High Court proceedings is a major milestone in being able to provide Geoff’s loved ones with the answers they deserve.” The BBC has reached out to Singapore Airlines for a statement on the legal action, and the airline has not yet issued a public comment on the case.