Action call after long-flight death

A woman from Cardiff is calling for a fight to make air travel safer after her father died from so-called "economy class syndrome" following a flight to Australia.

Thomas Lamb from Cardiff, was taken ill a day after flying with Singapore Airlines to Melbourne.

The 68-year-old complained of breathing difficulties and was taken to hospital, where he went into a coma before dying five days later.

Mr Lamb's daugher Linda Jones, 38, from Fairwater in Cardiff, said he was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in the lungs.

It angers me when people say it is rare

Linda Jones

The death certificate, which was issued in Australia, put the cause of death as a pulmonary embolism.

Now Mrs Jones, who flew to Australia to be with her father, said she wants to join a fight to make airlines address the problem of so-called "economy class syndrome".

"Out there the nurse said they got 10 cases a month of people coming off the aircraft," she said.

"It angers me when people say it is rare. I'm finding it hard to grieve properly."

'Fight for action'

"If someone dies of natural causes it is easier to get over it but I cannot sit back and allow it to go away."

"I want someone to come forward to take on some fight for civil action against the airline," said Mrs Jones.

Mr Lamb died in November but the case has only now come to light.

Singapore Airlines is investigating the incident.

Emma Christoffersen: Died after a long-haul flight

Meanwhile. a vascular surgeon, says he is about to publish evidence confirming a link between deep vein thrombosis and long-haul travel.

John Scurr, a surgeon at Middlesex Hospital, said it is the first time that a controlled study has shown a link.

The study is to be published shortly in the medical journal The Lancet.

The news of Mr Lamb's death comes after a woman from Wrexham died following a long-haul flight from San Francisco to London.

Susan Mavir-Ross, 42, from Llay, suffered a pulmonary thrombosis embolism at the end of the nine-hour flight.

Business class

Virgin Airlines said Mrs Mavir-Ross was travelling business class and was treated on board the airplane by a doctor.

In October, Emma Christoffersen, a 28-year-old woman from Newport, died following a flight from Australia to London.

A post-mortem examination showed she had suffered from a deep vein thrombosis.