A Turkish Airlines pilot died while flying a passenger plane from the United States to Turkey, requiring the crew to make an emergency landing in New York.
İlçehin Pehlivan, the plane’s 59-year-old captain, fainted during the journey from Seattle, Washington, to Istanbul, which reportedly took off at 7pm on Tuesday.
Turkish Airlines spokesperson Yahya Ustun tweeted on X, that the crew performed a medical intervention, but it was “ineffective”.
The flight’s co-pilot made an emergency landing in New York – but the captain lost his life before the plane landed.
Flight maps show the plane’s path towards Istanbul before the co-pilot took a sharp diversion.
Mr Pehlivan had worked at Turkish Airlines for 17 years, Mr Ustun revealed. He was operating an Airbus a350 type aircraft on flight number TK204 at the time of his death.
Last month, an Iraqi Airways flight from Baghdad to Guangzhou in China made an emergency landing at Kolkata airport in India due to a medical incident involving a 16-year-old girl who suddenly fell ill.
Despite getting immediate medical attention after the plane landed, the Iraqi girl was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital.
Also in September, a Delta Airlines flight had to return minutes after takeoff as passengers’ noses began bleeding when the cabin failed to pressurize as it climbed high into the air.
