A Ryanair flight, destined from Tirana, Albania to Manchester, England, had to make an unscheduled landing at London Stansted Airport on November 10, 2024. This abrupt detour was prompted by a life-threatening medical event involving a British passenger. Despite attempts at resuscitation by crew and passengers, the man was declared dead upon touchdown.
The flight, designated as RK8293, departed Tirana at 5:55 p.m. local time. It had flown over Switzerland and France when the passenger started showing signs of extreme discomfort. A witness accounts revealed that chaos ensued as the man started convulsing and eventually ceased to breathe.
Three passengers with knowledge in first aid and two flight attendants performed CPR for about 25 minutes in the airplane aisle. The crew also utilized the onboard defibrillator in a futile effort to revive the stricken passenger.
A spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service confirmed that in response to the medical emergency, multiple units including an ambulance, a Hazardous Area Response Team vehicle, a paramedic car, as well as the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance were dispatched to Stansted Airport. Regrettably, all attempts to save the man’s life were unsuccessful and he was declared dead.
Following the unexpected landing, passengers were asked to deplane while the situation was managed by officials. Roughly 90 minutes later, passengers were allowed to reboard the aircraft, now staffed with a fresh crew, to resume their journey to Manchester.
This incident marks the second instance of an in-flight fatality on a Ryanair flight in the year 2024. Earlier in January, an emergency landing in Bordeaux, France, was necessitated when another British passenger succumbed during a flight from Malaga, Spain to Manchester.
Other in-flight fatalities reported in 2024 include Raiznal Farzad Khalik, a 41-year-old U.S. citizen, who passed away due to an unspecified medical issue on a Fiji Airways flight from Nadi, Fiji to San Francisco, California, despite immediate aid from a doctor and cabin crew onboard.
Another fatal case involved Turkish Airlines pilot İlçehin Pehlivan, whose death mid-flight from Seattle, Washington to Istanbul, Turkey led to an emergency landing at New York’s JFK International Airport.
Although such emergencies are relatively rare, they underscore the unpredictable health risks associated with air travel and the challenges posed by handling such severe incidents at an altitude of 30,000 feet with limited medical resources.
