Luton airport worker died five years after hangar door crush - BBC News
Susan Dorbon was left tetraplegic after being found trapped between hangar doors, an inquest hears.
Susan Dorbon died five years after she was found trapped between hangar doors

A worker at a private jet company died five years after she was crushed by hangar doors, an inquest heard.

Susan Dorbon, from Barton-le-Clay, Bedfordshire, was left tetraplegic and in a coma after she was found trapped between two doors at Signature Flight Support at Luton Airport in 2015.

In August 2020 she died, aged 50, at a care home in Cambridgeshire.

Her cause of death was traumatic brain injury and cardiac arrest, the coroner's court jury was told.

Mrs Dorbon was working the nightshift at Signature Flight Support at Luton Airport when the incident happened

The inquest at Chicksands in Bedfordshire heard Mrs Dorbon, who was known as Suzi, was part of a three-person team moving aircraft on the nightshift on 28 April 2015.

Mrs Dorbon operated the doors to the hangar while her two colleagues collected the aircraft.

Her colleague Stuart Hyde said they had already moved one aircraft into the hangar without a problem.

Mr Hyde and Jim Cooper then used a tug to collect a second plane while Mrs Dorbon manoeuvred the doors.

"When we approached the hangar it looked like the doors were in the correct position," Mr Hyde said.

"Suzi wasn't in sight. We slowed down and got out of the aircraft tug. The situation did not feel right."

Mr Hyde said he walked towards the hangar and saw a high-vis jacket before realising it was his colleague.

"It was Suzi stuck in the doors," he said.

"She was upright but at an angle but leaning into a cavity."

The inquest heard Mrs Dorbon was freed by firefighters and airlifted to hospital.

Mr Hyde said the mechanical doors had been installed a year earlier and staff had received hour-long training sessions.

He said there was no safety device to stop the two doors being moved at the same time.

"I can't remember being told a distance to stand back from the doors," he said.

Coroner Dr Sean Cummings said the door operator should have been standing a metre clear of the doors before operating them.

The jury heard Mrs Dorbon's husband, Mick Dorbon, also worked at the airport.

He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had not worked since the incident.

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