Wayyyyy OT: Airline pilot dies mid-flight

[soggybomb]

UK Passenger jet pilot dies mid flight.

LONDON, England (AP) -- A British airline said Monday that one of its flights was forced to divert to Turkey after the co-pilot died in mid-flight. He died of natural causes, the airline said.

 

GB Airways said the Airbus A320, carrying 156 passengers from Manchester to Paphos in Cyprus, landed in Istanbul on Sunday after what was termed a medical emergency on the flight deck.

 

The co-pilot was pronounced dead once the plane had landed.

 

The airline identified the dead man as Michael Warren, 43, a former Royal Air Force pilot who was married and had two children.

 

Beyond natural causes, the airline did not give a specific cause of death.

 

The airline said passengers were never in danger. They were due to be flown to Cyprus on Monday.

[Bluesape]

Why should the COD be witheld?

[S. Yeti Bigfoot, Esq.]

It probably had something to do with the food.

[Dr. Ellwood]

Why should the COD be witheld?

 

Most likely a FAA regulation, pending their investigation of anything to do with flight anomalies. In this case there must be a autopsy. But what a shame, fairly young guy, and you know he had to have fairly resent exams to keep his heavy jet ticket active! wife and two kids ..shame.

[Fumblyfingers]

Yup!

[The Geoff]

I think this probably came under the CAA, Lee, but I see where you're coming from.

 

I think the CAA is often a lot 'stuffier' about things. Certainly when I was flying around in small aircraft in the US the Traffic Control was a lot 'free-er' than in the UK - terribly formal over here.

 

G.

[A String]

Wow! So young!

 

A terrible shame.

[fantasticsound]

First, condolances to the man's family. I can't imagine being dead in two years let alone dying so suddenly.

 

Second, I've always wondered how often this occurs. Not so much to the crew but, rather, to passengers. How many people die each day? How many people fly each day? Or travel long distance by other mass transport? You would think we'd hear about such things more often but we don't.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

You would think we'd hear about such things more often but we don't.

 

I think I've read somewhere that airlines tend to play down passenger deaths because they worry that superstitious passengers might avoid that flight or the dead person's seat number on that flight. Hotels do the same thing.

[soggybomb]

You would think we'd hear about such things more often but we don't.

Which is exactly why i posted this. it seemed unusual, b/c you never hear stuff like this normally. it isn't an "issue" but rather just an anecdote that seemed out of the ordinary