Posted on 04/15/2016 1:35:28 PM PDT by Gamecock
Qantas Airways has had more than its share of problems over the past couple of weeks. It has been confirmed that an unidentified passenger died on a Qantas Airways flight bound for Dubai on Saturday. The airline states that the apparent cause of death was a heart attack. Flight QF9 originated from Melbourne on Friday but was diverted to Muscat, Oman, to address the medical crisis. They were, unfortunately, unable to land in time.
According to Yahoo News, the airline says that their crew did everything that they could to assist the gentleman.
“Our crew did everything they could, including helping perform CPR with a doctor who was on board, but unfortunately the passenger passed away before the flight landed.”
“Our thoughts are with the passenger’s family.”
The airline has refused to identify the man or to provide specific details about his death, citing privacy concerns.
Another passenger on the flight described what took place. He said that the flight began to make a fast descent and that the man was being treated on the floor out in the open where everyone could see. The man died before they could land the plane, and multiple people boarded to examine him after the plane touched down. They removed his body approximately an hour later, along with his wife and the people who were accompanying him.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that flight QF9 was delayed for a total of four hours due to the medical emergency.
Additionally, Qantas had another incident last week which caused a flight delay. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the plane had to be turned back due to a “vibrating” engine. The flight was scheduled to fly from Brisbane to Tokyo Narita but had to return to Brisbane after about a half hour into the flight. An airline spokesperson cited technical problems as the cause of the engine anomaly.
A few days after that incident, yet another plane bound for Dubai had to be diverted to a nearby airport due to a similar vibration issue in one of the engines. That incident occurred about eight hours after take-off.
Qantas Airways is Australia’s largest airline. Its name is an acronym for “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.” Its main hub is at Sydney Airport.
In 1971, a man by the name of “Mr. Brown” phoned the airline and made a bomb threat. Wikipedia recounts the incident in that the caller said that the bomb had been placed on a flight bound for Hong Kong. “Brown” demanded $500,000 in unmarked $20 bills. As proof of his validity, he directed the police to an airport locker where a live bomb had been stored. The airline paid the ransom demand after which the mysterious man phoned them back and told them that the story was a hoax. A man was later arrested for the crime based on an anonymous tip, but the total ransom was never recovered. A copycat unsuccessfully attempted the same ransom scheme in 1997.
Qantas has been ranked as one of the world’s safest airlines. It is claimed that they have never had an airliner crash with fatalities outside of war times. Excluding accidents and shoot-downs during World War II when some of their aircraft were flying on behalf of Allied forces, and two other accidents post-war, there have been no Qantas deaths since 1951.
The airline was founded in 1920 in Winton, Queensland. Its first international flight launched in 1935 with a maiden destination of Singapore. Qantas flights serve 65 domestic and 27 international destinations. They also operate small flightseeing charters in Antarctica. Qantas offers a non-stop flight from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth.
Longest for me so far is LHR to HKG, 12h.
Took an Ambien after dinner, missed (thankfully) 8.5hrs of the flight.
:-)
Yes, Yes, I remember I had the lasagna.
>> 135 million passengers who arrived in the Paris airport. 56 people had confirmed pulmonary embolism on arrival <<
I talked once to a foreign service officer who had served at the American Consulate in Beijing. He said it was routine for the Consulate to arrange shipping back home of the remains of elderly American tourists who had suffered fatal strokes and cardiac problems (especially due to DVT) on those ultra-long flights from the USA to China.
“How many people do you lose on a normal cruse? 30? 40?”
aka "Economy Class Syndrome"
It is critical to get up and move around regularly on long flights.
I took that same flight in June 2007 with my daughter then aged 3 months. I survived. But yes, my feet were puffy once we landed
As a teenager I flew 7 hrs. Miami to Caracas, ...on a DC-4. :)
Today, 3-4 hrs. tops.
I can’t imagine 8, 10+ hrs on a plane.
Flew to Denver a few yrs. ago on a smaller jet. The seats were like concrete.
Several on us stood in the aisle like on a city bus for the last 2 hours .
Awful.
I remember reading somewhere that at any given time the population in the air above the U.S. would rank in the top 20 largest U.S. cities.
Although they do have a history of mid-air explosions with jumbo jets.
I had a FRA to DFW flight that was almost that long one time. Started out up the North Sea between Scotland and Norway; over Greenland, then back down. Strong headwinds and a pilot that was trying to save money on fuel.
This guy just got unlucky. But international travel really does beat the body up. I don't know how business travelers make trans-Pacific runs on a routine basis. Once or twice a year is enough for me.
In the last few years I've done about a dozen or so 14-16 hour long flights...JFK-HKG,LA-SYD,Dubai-JFK.My cardiologist has strongly advised me to spend no more than an hour sitting without walking around for 15 minutes or more.I usually spend a lot of time standing in the rear galley...trying to get lucky(only kidding about "lucky").
Just between Frankfurt and Atlanta on Delta 14, I stood for most of the flight back near the restrooms where there was some common room.
Nowadays if I can’t drive there in two days, I’m not going. Life is too short and there’s always Youtube for armchair adventuring.
In a related Story, Maya Angelou loved flying on the Concorde.
Liberal Black Poets who are friends with the Clintons must make a boat load of Money.
RIP the poor guy on the Quantas Flight.
When it’s your time, it’s your time.
Hope he didn’t have to pay for the Headset.
I think they do.
Yep, I have to make an APAC run 2x per year.
Longest with stops was BLR-DOH-LHR-IAD, 19hrs flight time.
Qatar 777-Qatar 380-BA 380
A lengthy trans-oceanic flight is just a bad place to have a life-threatening medical crisis. Even if there were a doctor on board whose training would be helpful, there’s not a whole lot that can be done other than try to stabilize the person until landing.
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