Jetstar passenger chokes and dies while eating inflight meal on Singapore-NZ flight
Barrel of laughs? Not quite. Jetstar has received unwanted attention over a midair incident in which a drunk teenager reportedly urinated on a sleeping 11-year-old girl. The tail of a Qantas aircraft is reflected in the windows of this JetStar A320 Airbus at Sydney Airport on July 28, 2011.
A passenger aboard low-cost airline Jetstar has choked and died while eating an inflight meal while traveling from Singapore to Auckland, according to reports.
New Zealander Robert Rippingale, 31, had been eating a beef dinner and watching a movie when his girlfriend noticed him shaking, the New Zealand Herald reports.
"I thought he was laughing very hard, then I looked at his face and his eyes were rolling and he couldn't talk," Vanessa Preechakul, 27, reportedly said. "His lips were turning purple.
"One minute we were sitting next to each other kissing, holding hands and the next minute he was choking."
Preechakul said a doctor and two nurses on board were unable to save Rippingale, who was pronounced dead 90 minutes into the 11-hour flight.
The pair met in Singapore, where Rippingale had lived and worked for three years, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The paper cited Jetstar spokesman Andrew McGinnes as saying that the cause of death would be left to a coroner to determine.
"This was a very difficult and sad event and our sympathies are with the passenger's family," McGinnes said.
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