The Air India flight to Sharjah was forced to return after a passenger suffered a cardiac arrest.
An Air India flight flying from Thiruvananthapuram to Sharjah on Tuesday was forced to return after one of its passengers suffered a cardiac arrest. Sources said aircraft personnel followed all the prescribed medical emergency procedures, but the person could not be saved.
The passenger was declared dead after Air India flight AI967 landed, news agency ANI quoted an official at the spot as saying. The body is in the process of being off-loaded, he added. Further details are awaited.
A similar incident occurred on the night of May 19, when an Air India flight from Delhi to Muscat was diverted to the Jamnagar Air Force base in Gujarat because a 33-year-old passenger had suffered a cardiac arrest. The passenger was taken to the Guru Govind Singh Hospital in Jamnagar for treatment.
Although commercial flights are usually not allowed to land on military bases, an exception was made in that instance. Gujarat Public Relations Officer (Defence) Puneet Chadha said in a tweet that Air Force authorities responded quickly because diverting the flight to a civil air field would have taken more time.
(With inputs from ANI)