A Ryanair flight bound for Manchester, England from Tirana, Albania had to make an unexpected landing at London Stansted Airport on November 10, 2024. This was necessitated by a severe medical event suffered by a British passenger mid-flight, which resulted in his death despite resuscitation attempts.
Flight RK8293 departed from Tirana at 5:55 p.m. local time and it was midway over France and Switzerland when the passenger began to show signs of serious distress. AÂ witness on board recounted the scene as one of turmoil, detailing how the man started convulsing and subsequently stopped breathing.
In response, three passengers who had first aid knowledge and two cabin crew members performed CPR in the plane’s aisle for about 25 minutes. The onboard defibrillator was also put into use in a bid to revive the man.
An official from the East of England Ambulance Service noted that an ambulance, a Hazardous Area Response Team vehicle, a paramedic car, and the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance were all rushed to Stansted Airport that Sunday evening. They were responding to the reported medical emergency involving a male passenger on a plane. Regrettably, the man was declared dead despite the collective rescue efforts.
Following the emergency landing, passengers were allowed to disembark as officials handled the situation. Roughly 90 minutes later, they reboarded the plane, now staffed with a new crew, to continue their journey to Manchester.
This incident represents the second reported in-flight fatality on a Ryanair flight for the year 2024. Earlier in January, a British passenger also passed away during a flight from Malaga, Spain to Manchester, which resulted in an emergency landing in Bordeaux, France.
Other instances of mid-flight fatalities in 2024 include the case of Raiznal Farzad Khalik, a 41-year-old US citizen who died on a Fiji Airways flight from Nadi, Fiji to San Francisco, California due to an unknown medical condition, despite immediate medical assistance from a doctor on board and cabin crew.
Yet another case involved a Turkish Airlines pilot, İlçehin Pehlivan, who died while flying from Seattle, Washington to Istanbul, Turkey leading to an emergency landing at New York’s JFK International Airport.
Though such emergencies are uncommon, these instances underscore the unpredictable health risks associated with air travel and the difficulties of managing serious medical incidents mid-flight with limited resources available while cruising at 30,000 feet.