This flight faced some major bumps. During a Turkish Airlines flight from Seattle to Istanbul on Wednesday, the pilot died. The tragedy prompted the plane to make a dramatic turn towards New York City, before landing at JFK.
Airline spokesperson Yahya Üstün tweeted that Captain İlçehin Pehlivan, 59, fainted during the flight. Once initial medical intervention was determined to be ineffective, the co-pilot decided to make an emergency landing. Before the plane touched down, though, Pehlivan had died.
Passengers aboard the plane were rebooked on flights out of New York, Üstün said.
The pilot had worked at Turkish Airlines since 2007, and had been cleared to fly as recently as August, Üstün said.
“As the Turkish Airlines family,” Üstün said, “we wish God’s mercy upon our captain and patience to his grieving family, all his colleagues and loved ones.”
Inflight deaths are incredibly rare. In a 2008 article that appeared Hippokratiathe, a peer-reviewed medical journal, inflight medical emergencies were determined to occur at a rate of 20 to 100 per million passengers. Of those, there was a death rate of 0.1 to 1 per million, the article found.
The death rate is likely so low because, according to the article, a medical professional is present for 40 to 70 percent of inflight medical emergencies, and a doctor is present in 30 to 60 percent.
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