The wife of an Angolan man who died after being restrained by G4S security guards as he was being deported broke down in tears as she told an inquest her husband "died asking for help".

Jimmy Mubenga, 46, became ill on a British Airways plane as it prepared to leave Heathrow Airport in October 2010, and died later in hospital.

His wife, Adrienne Makenda Kambana, 44, was giving evidence at Isleworth Crown Court. Her barrister, Henry Blaxland QC, read a statement on her behalf in which she said: "He did not deserve this kind of death. His death is painful and sad. We feel sad for him because we have been told that he was asking for help and did not get it."

The couple lived in Ilford, Essex, and had five children, the youngest of whom was just seven months old when her father died. Karon Monaghan QC, assistant deputy coroner for Hammersmith and Fulham, told the jury the three security guards on the plane were arrested "on suspicion of having committed criminal offences in relation to the death of Mr Mubenga", but the Crown Prosecution Service did not proceed with the case.

The couple arrived in the UK from Angola in 1994. Mr Mubenga was being deported after serving a two-year prison sentence for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The inquest continues.

Wife's tears over deportation plane death