Luton airport worker died five years after being crushed by hangar doors

A worker at a Luton company that handles private jets for the rich and famous died five years after she was crushed by hangar doors, an inquest jury has heard.

Susan Dorbon, who was known as Suzi, was found trapped between two doors at Signature Flight Support at Luton Airport in 2015.

She died, aged 50, on August 30 last year at a care home in Cambridgeshire. The cause of death was as a result traumatic brain injury and cardiac arrest, the three-day inquest hearing which concluded at Chicksands on Friday was told.

The coroner Dr Sean Cummings told the jury that Mrs Dorbon, who had been married to her husband Mick since 2009, had been part of a three-person team moving aircraft on the night shift at Hangar 219 at the airport on April 28, 2015.

While two workmates were collecting an aircraft she operated the doors to the hangar. The coroner said the door operator should have been standing a metre clear of the doors before operating them, but somehow she became trapped.

Her colleague Stuart Hyde said one aircraft had gone into the hangar without a problem. He and colleague Jim Cooper used a tug to collect a second plane from Harrods, another private jet handling company.

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 the threshold of the doors. I saw a high-viz jacket. I walked towards it and I realised it was Suzi stuck in the doors.”

He said he called for the emergency services. She was freed by firefighters and airlifted to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

Mr Hyde said the mechanical doors, which are operated by a pendant and button, had been installed a year earlier and staff had received an hour-long training session. He said there was no safety device to stop two doors being moved at the same time.

He said: “I can’t remember being told a distance to stand back from the doors.” After the accident he said markers were put in place.

Mick Dorbon who had lived with his wife in Barton-le-Clay, was not at the hearing. In a statement read to the jury he said he and his wife, who did not have children, both worked for different companies at the airport. He said they felt very lucky to have a good life with her.

At the time he made the statement he had been at her bedside every day for all but five days. He had not worked himself since the accident, which had left her tetraplegic and in a coma. Mr Dorban was diagnosed with PTSD.

The coroner told the jury the issues in the case were: “What safety arrangements were in place. Did staff know about them? How did she get into the door space and could her death have been reasonably prevented.”

The jury found she died as a result of an accident.

Back in 2017, Signature Flight Support pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of work of employees between March 28, 2014 and April 28, 2015. The court was told that the company pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and had a good health and safety record. The judge fined them £250,000, plus £19,483.50 prosecution costs.