Jeddah-Hyderabad IndiGo flight makes medical emergency landing in Pakistan, passenger dies

New Delhi: An international flight of IndiGo from Jeddah to Hyderabad undertook an emergency landing at International Airport in Karachi following a medical emergency onboard. The incident occurred in the wee hours of Thursday morning when a passenger suffered a health issues mid-flight. The airline in a statement said that the captain diverted the flight to Karachi, where the passenger was attended to by a doctor on arrival. Despite several efforts, the passenger was pronounced dead by the doctor on landing.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority report, the pilot of the IndiGo airline flight requested an emergency landing at 4:15 am local time after Zohra’s health deteriorated. Karachi Air Traffic Control permitted an emergency landing on humanitarian grounds and the aircraft immediately landed at Karachi Airport.

The incident occurred on board IndiGo flight 6E 68 operating from Jeddah to Hyderabad. “The captain diverted the flight to Karachi, where the passenger was attended to by a doctor on arrival,” the statement read.

“Unfortunately, making swift adjustments to land in another country, the passenger did not survive and was declared dead on arrival,” it said. The flight departed from Karachi after completing formalities and landed in Hyderabad at 0908 IST on Thursday,” the airline added.

This incident is not an isolated incident. This is the second time in recent history that an Indian flight has had to make an emergency landing at the same airport due to health complications of a passenger. In October, a similar situation emerged when another Indian flight had to suddenly land at Karachi airport due to a medical emergency.

Following the unfortunate incident, the aircraft was later cleared to resume its journey, taking off from Karachi at 6:15 pm. These examples highlight the importance of international cooperation beyond political differences and border disputes in times of crisis. They also stress the need for better in-flight medical facilities and preparedness to deal with such emergencies.