Pilot has fatal heart attack during passenger plane flight

Aircraft forced to make emergency landing

A plane had to make an emergency landing after a pilot had what is understood to be a heart attack.

Aeroflot flight SU1546, which was flying from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport to Anapa on the Black Sea, was forced to make an emergency landing in the city of Rostov-on-Don.

The Airbus 320, which seats 150 people, aircraft was in mid-flight when the pilot suffered what was believed to be a cardiac arrest.

Crew appealed for medical help onboard, but to no avail, reports RT.

Passenger Yelena Voronova told local media: “A stewardess practically ran across the aisle. They later asked if there were any doctors onboard and said they really needed them. Then they asked again.”

Although he was provided with medical help on the ground, the pilot died shortly after the plane landed.

According to flight tracking data, the plane took off again for Anapa two and a half hours later, landing just before 2pm local time.

An investigation is underway.

An Aeroflot spokesperson told The Independent: “The co-pilot on flight SU1546 from Moscow to Anapa was suddenly taken ill mid-flight. The captain took the decision to make an emergency landing at Rostov-on-Don, where medical staff were waiting. Tragically, however, the medical staff were unable to save our colleague, and he died on the way to the hospital.

“Everyone at Aeroflot is deeply saddened by our colleague’s death, and we extend our sincere condolences to his friends and loved ones. The pilot had a clean medical history and had passed a regular compulsory medical test the day before the flight, as well as a six-monthly examination by a medical commission in the summer. Russian regulations regarding the health of civil aviation pilots are among the toughest in the world, and any question-marks over a pilot’s fitness to fly result in immediate grounding.”

All commercial jet flights are required to have at least two pilots onboard and they are trained to land safely if one of the pilots becomes incapacitated.

It is not the first time a member of flight crew has suffered a medical episode onboard.

In January, a cabin crew member onboard a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu to New York died mid-flight, causing the jet to divert to San Francisco.

In June 2018, a co-pilot suffered a seizure in the cockpit of a Flybe flight, causing the plane to make a violent movement after he became incapacitated and repeatedly pressed on the plane’s pedals.

In 1996, the captain of a Britannia Airways charter jet died at the controls of the aircraft as it was descending into Malaga.

The first officer landed the aircraft with the body of the pilot still strapped into the seat next to him.