‘Loving’ wife, 50, died five years after being crushed between hangar doors at Luton Airport private jet firm
A “LOVING” wife, 50, died five years after being crushed between hangar doors at Luton Airport, an inquest heard.
Susan Dorbon, also known as Suzi, was found trapped between two mechanical doors back in 2015.
She was rushed to hospital and put in a coma but sadly died on August 30 last year at a care home in Cambridgeshire.
On Wednesday, a Bedfordshire Coroner’s Court ruled that Suzi died as a result of a traumatic brain injury and a heart attack.
Coroner Dr Sean Cummings said the woman, who worked for private jet firm Signature Flight Support, which operated out of London airport, might have been ignoring safety rules that prevented operators from being within one metre of hangar doors when she got trapped that fateful mid-April evening back in 2015.
Colleagues said Suzi has been left alone to deal with the doors at hangar 219 and went missing after the first plane had docked.
Stuart Hyde, one of Suzi’s co-workers, said one plane had gone into the hangar without a problem but that something seemed wrong when they were trying to dock a second private jet belonging to Harrods.
He told the jury: “Suzi said she would move the doors. We went to Harrods to pick up the other aircraft.
“Suzi was to manoeuvre the doors for the second aircraft. We got held up by aircraft control. When we approached the hangar it looked like the doors were in the correct position. Suzi wasn’t in sight.
“We slowed down and got out of the aircraft tug. The situation did not feel right.
“I started walking towards the hangar and crossed threshold of the doors. I saw a high-viz jacket. I walked towards it and I realised it was Suzi stuck in the doors.
“She was upright but at an angle but leaning into a cavity.”
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Suzi was later freed by firefighters and airlifted to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
Hyde said the mechanical doors – which are operated by a pendant and button – had been installed a year earlier and that staff had received an hour-long training session.
He said there was no safety mechanism to stop two doors moving at the same time.
“I can’t remember being told a distance to stand back from the doors,” he told the Coroner’s court.
Suzi’s husband Mick Dorbon was not at the hearing.
In a statement to the court, he said he and his wife had worked for different companies at the airport and had lived a happy life together.
According to the Daily Mail, Mick had spent all but five days beside his wife’s bedside during those five years.
He chose not to work after the accident and still suffers from PTSD.
The hearing, which is expected to last three days, continues.