Passengers of Jetstar who flew with a dead Kiwi male on board the trip from Singapore to Auckland were offered by the air carrier $100 as compensation. The offer was in the form of travel vouchers.

New Zealander Robert Rippingale, 31, choked to his death just 90 minutes after the Jetstar aircraft left for the 11-hour flight while eating his in-flight meal. Doctors on board the same flight pronounced Mr Rippingale dead.

Jetstar crew then removed his corpse, placed the body in a curtained rest area and covered it with a blanket. Mr Rippingale's girlfriend, Vanessa Prichakul, sat with his corpse for the rest of the flight.

Ms Prichakul recalled that Mr Rippingale's lips turned purple and his eyes rolled, indicating something went wrong.

"One minute we were sitting next to each other kissing, holding hands and the next minute he was choking," Ms Preechakul told New Zealand Herald.

Even if the police said the Kiwi man choked on his beef dish served on board, the coroner is still determining the cause of Mr Rippingale's death since the man's family said he had a pre-existing heart ailment. According to the family, Mr Rippingale had a hole in his heart when he was born, although he underwent surgery when he was 6 to correct the condition and eventually had the valves fixed a number of times.

Other passengers in the same flight recounted that they were shaken and shocked by the choking incident and seeing a doctor perform CPR on Mr Rippingale for about 10 minutes. After the incident, the flight crew continued to serve food to the rest of the passengers.

A Jetstar spokesman said the air carrier decided to offer the $100 discount applicable on future travel as its way of thanking the travelers who were patient during the entire trip despite the choking incident and the subsequent death of Mr Rippingale.

Mr Rippingale was employed for three years in Singapore where he met Ms Preechakul who became his girlfriend. They were supposed to have a vacation in New Zealand to celebrate the 50th birthdays of Mr Rippingale's parents and to show Ms Preechakul his native land.

However, instead of celebrating Mr Rippingale's mother's birthday, she buried her eldest son on Saturday. More than 150 people attended the funeral.

Ewan Wilson, a Hamilton city councillor and one of the passengers in the same flight, told stuff.co.nz that the air carrier instead of offering the $100 discount, should have turned the plane around and returned to Singapore after Mr Rippingale was declared dead.