Giving up the skies for social service: Ex-SIA stewardess on career change after witnessing death on flight

One moment, she was making small talk with a passenger. An hour later, her colleagues were performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on that same person. 

This was an experience that stuck with former Singapore Airlines (SIA) stewardess Lynn Koh — who later traded her career in the skies for one in the social services. 

She was in her third year of flying when the incident happened.

While working on a flight bound for Auckland, New Zealand, Lynn struck up a brief conversation with a middle-aged male passenger who was travelling alone. 

Before taking her scheduled break, everything seemed normal. 

"It was just casual chats, you know, it was perfectly fine," the former air stewardess told Stomp. 

But when she emerged from the rest area about an hour later, she was shocked to see her colleagues performing CPR on the very passenger she had just been chatting with moments earlier. 

Despite the situation, Lynn told Stomp she "did not have time to process her feelings" as she had to maintain her composure and continue serving other passengers on board. 

The flight was eventually diverted to Sydney where local authorities attended to the passenger, who had died. 

For Lynn, it was a sobering reminder of how unpredictable life can be.

Someone could board a plane full of excitement to arrive at their destination, only to end up dying before they could get there, she recalled. 

From SIA to social services

In 2015, about a year after the incident, she decided to hang up her kebaya for good — transitioning from being an air stewardess to a corporate role within the airline's loyalty marketing department. 

There, she joined a team curating events engaging SIA's top customers. 

While it was a "hard decision", she told Stomp she made the switch as she wanted to experience things "on the ground" and "challenge herself" by trying her hand at something new. 

Lynn eventually left SIA in 2018, after which she stepped into a career in social services — starting with a role at the National Council of Social Services (NCSS) as the manager of Relations and Engagement (Philantrophy), Community Chest.

The pivot was influenced by what happened on the fateful Auckland-bound flight earlier in her career, she told Stomp. 

Since then, Lynn has taken on roles at several organisations, including the NCSS, Agency for Integrated Care and the Football Association of Singapore. 

Today, the 38-year-old is Head of Community Advancement at Singapore Cancer Society (SCS), where she leads a team of six in raising funds and building partnerships to support its cancer prevention, patient support and advocacy initiatives.

According to Lynn, her current role also hits close to home. 

Her best friend, who is also in her 30s, is a cancer survivor. 

"She has two very young kids," the former flight attendant told Stomp. 

Throughout her best friend's recovery, Lynn gathered friends to give her the support she needed during the difficult period — checking in on her regularly to make sure she was okay and being present whenever she or her family needed them, she added.

And despite having since built a career in a different industry, Lynn admitted that she still misses being an air stewardess "every day". 

"I will always tell my friends, 'If you ask me whether I'd do it all over again, I will'," she said. 

Still, Lynn said her passion for social services ultimately outweighed her love for her cabin crew days — telling Stomp that it was "simply too strong to ignore". 

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