Singapore Airlines has honoured three members of its cabin crew after they helped revive a 71-year-old passenger whose heart stopped shortly before a flight from Barcelona to Singapore was due to take off.
Chief stewardess Serene Koh, leading steward Idris Abu, and inflight manager Kueh Joo Tong were among 29 individuals and teams recognised at Singapore Airlines’ CEO Service Excellence Awards in Singapore on Friday.
Koh, 48, and Kueh, 57, were honoured for their response to the medical emergency.
The incident took place on 13 October 2025, shortly before the aircraft was due to depart Barcelona. A cabin crew member alerted Koh that a passenger had become unconscious, and she found the 71-year-old man unresponsive, without a pulse, and not breathing, according to the Straits Times.
Koh and Abu moved the passenger on to the aircraft floor and began CPR. Koh then asked Kueh to bring medical equipment, including an automated external defibrillator.
Two doctors and two trained first-aiders among the passengers responded to the crew’s call for assistance. Koh took turns performing CPR with one of the doctors, while the other crew members helped with the emergency and kept the remaining passengers calm.
The resuscitation continued for about 20 minutes, during which the passenger received two shocks from the AED, after which his pulse eventually returned.
“I was shocked, and the first thing that came to my mind was to quickly get a response from him, to check if he had a spontaneous pulse and breathing,” Koh told the Straits Times.
Koh remembered the passenger’s wife beside him, crying and pleading with the crew to save him. “She was pleading with us to save him, please save him. At whatever cost,” Koh told digital media outlet Mothership.
Kueh, who has worked for Singapore Airlines for 34 years, said: “We went for training every year to be ready for these situations, and it paid off.”
It was the first medical emergency of this kind that Kueh had encountered during his more than three decades with the airline. Koh, by contrast, had already performed CPR twice during her 26 years as Singapore Airlines cabin crew; this was her third time doing so on the job.
Once the man’s pulse returned, it was initially faint. He remained unconscious and did not respond verbally, but he was breathing, Kueh said.
The passenger was taken from the aircraft by emergency medical crew and transported to hospital in Barcelona, where he underwent surgery and had a stent inserted into a blocked artery to restore blood flow to his heart, the Straits Times reported.
He remained in Barcelona for about a month while recovering before returning to his home in Sydney, Australia.
The medical emergency delayed the flight’s departure by about an hour, but it still arrived in Singapore at about 5am, on time.
It took Koh and Kueh a month to learn that the passenger had suffered an arrhythmia and his heart had stopped that day.
Hueh said later that he was “happy that we were able to help”.
“It’s somebody’s grandfather, somebody’s father,” he told Mothership.
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