Flight returns after take-off as passenger suffers heart attack

The passenger identified as Nikhil Shetty (47), a resident of the City, was however declared dead on touchdown. He is said to have suffered cardio pulmonary arrest. He was a diabetic patient.

Sources said, the passenger is said to have complained of chest pain, soon after the airline had taken to the skies. The aircraft which originally took off at 11:57 am returned to BIA at 1.00 pm. It finally took off for Mumbai at 02:02 pm with 83 guests and crew on board.

According to a release issued by Kingfisher Airline, the crew, who are trained to deal with medical emergencies, responded immediately by paging for a doctor on-board and assisted the guest.

 “There was a doctor present on board and he attended to the guest right away. Meanwhile, based on the health status of the guest, the commander of the aircraft decided to return to BIAL. Simultaneously, the commander flashed a message asking for a doctor and ambulance to be on stand-by at the airport terminal so that further medical assistance could be offered to the guest,” the release said.

Sources said that Dr Nandakumar Jairam, chairman and group medical director of Columbia Asia Hospitals, who was also on board, immediately attend to him.
“Sadly, despite being attended to by a qualified doctor on board and despite repeated attempts made by the medical team at BIAL, the guest was later declared dead by the medical team,” the release added.

Dr Jairam later confirmed to Deccan Herald that he was on board when the incident occurred. He recalled that the plane was cruising when Shetty collapsed. “I couldn’t see much but the passengers closer to him called the crew, who in turn sent an alert asking for doctor’s assistance. So I went there. However, when I saw the passenger he did not have a heart beat,” he said.