Qatar Airways pilot dies mid-air of heart attack

DUBAI - The captain of a Qatar Airways flight from the Philippines to Qatar died of heart attack on Wednesday.

Sources said the captain, a 43-year-old Indian national, apparently suffered a heart attack after the flight took off from Manila. The crew and a doctor on board tried to revive him, while the co-pilot diverted the flight to Kuala Lumpur. However, the pilot died mid-air as all effort to rescuscsitate him failed.

"Qatar Airways regrets to inform that the captain of Flight QR645, operating from Manila to Doha, passed away on board," the airline said in a statement.

But the company did not say the cause of death, or if the flight was ever at risk. Qatar Airways said in the statement that its priority "remains the comfort and safety of its passengers and staff".

Sources said the pilot complained of chest pain and the co-pilot sought permission to land at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport around 11.30am local time. The plane, an A330 Airbus with about 260 passengers on board, made an emergency landing while a medical team was on standby, the sources said. "The pilot was pronounced dead and the airlines took immediate steps and changed the entire crew before the aircraft took off at 1.15pm," a Malaysian newspaper quoted an airline spokesman as saying.

Police chief of Malaysia's Sepang district Zahedi Ayub said the pilot's body was taken to the Serdang Hospital for a post-mortem and the results showed that he had died of heart failure.

The plane, which was scheduled to arrive at 11am in Doha, later landed at 3.37pm. - suresh@khaleejtimes.com


Khaleejtimes.com, Suresh Pattali, 14 October 2010,